Post by qandq1983 on Aug 22, 2020 13:04:49 GMT -8
Hi I'm just going to share my experience with my Japanese Q&Q digital watch.
I bought the watch in on Wednesday 8th June 1983 in a local bookshop, Sligo, Ireland. It was just after my 9th birthday and I had gathered the required £15.95 Irish pounds (guess about 150euro in today's money) so I went off to town with my father. I remember the date because the lady in the shop had erroneously put the wrong date on the yellow guarantee form and had to correct it to 8/6/1983.
With the exception of about 3 years I have worn it every day over the past 37 years. I has been through a lot and shows all the signs of it. The buttons are worn almost back to the nubs and the chassis is well pitted. It is on it's third strap and I've lost count of all the batteries it has gone through but I would guess greater than 15. It has been through a lot of mishaps but thankfully no water damage or battery leakage. In its earlier years it was dropped on occasion and one time in the 90s when I dropped it due to a faulty strap the backlight failed. I had messed around with it opening the back cover as a child and lost the spring to work the alarm also the back gasket. I improvised all those years ago using a piece of wire to replace the spring and plumbers tape rolled up to replace the gasket. They are still there now.
It kept going throughout the years however today I thought was going to be it's last. Earlier this week the LCD display would sporadically go faint and recover in an unpredictable manner. It got worse throughout the week until it was unusable and I decided it needed some attention today. It has a Miyota 4920 module that is kept together using metal clips on the 4 corners. I unclipped them and everything including the zebra connecters for the LCD came apart to my fear. Although I fix the odd smartphone as a hobby this repair made me more nervous. For some reason the green frame for holding the LCD was split since I don't know when so I decided to Superglue the split which was rough but successful. The board thankfully was free from corrosion but there was small dirt fragments particularly on the LCD strips so I hope this was this the reason for the fault. I cleaned all with alcohol. With difficulty trying to align the LCD strips, battery connector and after several attempts I managed to get the clips back in place and reassemble the module. I put the battery back in and the display partially came back with a few segments missing. Much to my surprise when I put the module back into the chassis and replaced the back the display fully came back to life. All segments working and no longer fading out. Absolutely thrilled. I accept nothing lasts forever but hopefully it will go for a few more years. Having such a good quality product has saved me so much and is one against our modern throw away culture and good for my carbon footprint.
The watch is old and battered so probably not collectable but I can't imagine there are many better examples of such an everyday used 1980s digital watch anywhere.
I bought the watch in on Wednesday 8th June 1983 in a local bookshop, Sligo, Ireland. It was just after my 9th birthday and I had gathered the required £15.95 Irish pounds (guess about 150euro in today's money) so I went off to town with my father. I remember the date because the lady in the shop had erroneously put the wrong date on the yellow guarantee form and had to correct it to 8/6/1983.
With the exception of about 3 years I have worn it every day over the past 37 years. I has been through a lot and shows all the signs of it. The buttons are worn almost back to the nubs and the chassis is well pitted. It is on it's third strap and I've lost count of all the batteries it has gone through but I would guess greater than 15. It has been through a lot of mishaps but thankfully no water damage or battery leakage. In its earlier years it was dropped on occasion and one time in the 90s when I dropped it due to a faulty strap the backlight failed. I had messed around with it opening the back cover as a child and lost the spring to work the alarm also the back gasket. I improvised all those years ago using a piece of wire to replace the spring and plumbers tape rolled up to replace the gasket. They are still there now.
It kept going throughout the years however today I thought was going to be it's last. Earlier this week the LCD display would sporadically go faint and recover in an unpredictable manner. It got worse throughout the week until it was unusable and I decided it needed some attention today. It has a Miyota 4920 module that is kept together using metal clips on the 4 corners. I unclipped them and everything including the zebra connecters for the LCD came apart to my fear. Although I fix the odd smartphone as a hobby this repair made me more nervous. For some reason the green frame for holding the LCD was split since I don't know when so I decided to Superglue the split which was rough but successful. The board thankfully was free from corrosion but there was small dirt fragments particularly on the LCD strips so I hope this was this the reason for the fault. I cleaned all with alcohol. With difficulty trying to align the LCD strips, battery connector and after several attempts I managed to get the clips back in place and reassemble the module. I put the battery back in and the display partially came back with a few segments missing. Much to my surprise when I put the module back into the chassis and replaced the back the display fully came back to life. All segments working and no longer fading out. Absolutely thrilled. I accept nothing lasts forever but hopefully it will go for a few more years. Having such a good quality product has saved me so much and is one against our modern throw away culture and good for my carbon footprint.
The watch is old and battered so probably not collectable but I can't imagine there are many better examples of such an everyday used 1980s digital watch anywhere.
