# Found In The Junk



## seemore (Oct 25, 2007)

Bought a cheap lot of watches less than a tenner on ebay and thse were in amongst them. Now i dont like LCD watches as a rule but thse intrested me mainly because of the age.Popped some battries in and away they went.









The national one is in very good nick and daughter already has eyes on it.










<img src=">


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## seemore (Oct 25, 2007)

I must learn how to post pictures properly


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

seemore said:


> I must learn how to post pictures properly


Yep, you must


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## feenix (May 27, 2008)

seemore said:


> I must learn how to post pictures properly


Yep


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## sparrow (Feb 7, 2009)

edit - sorry, didnt realise some other members had help out already :victory:


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## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

feenix said:


>


Interesting that they went to the trouble of making the quartz crystal visible through a clear cover on the module. (I'm guessing that's what the tuning fork shaped thing is dead centre in the circuit board?)

Gives it a kind of nerdy coolness.

If they'd dressed the rest of the circuit board up a bit, and used a bit less solder, they could almost have got away with a display back.


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)

Seemore... I use Photobucket as well and it can't be any easier! Just put your cursor over the image you want and a window will pop up. Go to the bottom one "IMG Code" and click on it. It will say copied - and then just paste it into your post... sounds a lot worse than it is!

Why the 2 batteries?? It can't be that much of an energy hog - can it??


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Ooh, I love the Early Microma, It's getting harder to find these in working condition, Microma was also the home of the first SOC (system on chip) by Intel who bought the company in the 70's, I believe SEIKO7A38Fan was employed by Intel and may be able to give you a bit more info on them,

here's my two,


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Yes, I believe the IMG and img tags must match case.... Odd. Somtimes best to use the image button on the editor.

Microma was also the watch Harrison Ford wore in BLADE RUNNER. :think:


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

Lovely watches and a great find. Have you seen how much a black and gold version of this watch went for on ebay recently? :shocking:


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

> Lovely watches and a great find. Have you seen how much a black and gold version of this watch went for on ebay recently?


Crazy wasnt it......$3.5k if I remember correctly..


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

jasonm said:


> Crazy wasnt it......$3.5k if I remember correctly..


Yep... and it didn't even work.


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Lampoc said:


> Lovely watches and a great find. Have you seen how much a black and gold version of this watch went for on ebay recently? :shocking:


Yep, saw that. I did have the black version of the microma but the black had come off and the bracelet was missing so I swapped it for a seiko pulse meter, Which I'm still happy with believe or not. But if there are any Bladerunner fans out there with a can of black spray paint and a gold marker I'm quite willing to swap my two micromas for a an omega speedmaster, A mark II would be fine :naughty:


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

wookie said:


> .... Microma was also the home of the first SOC (system on chip) by Intel who bought the company in the 70's, I believe SEIKO7A38Fan was employed by Intel and may be able to give you a bit more info on them ....


Indeed I was, but only from 1981 onwards, so I'm afraid I can't tell you very much about Intel's Microma watch venture in the 1970's.

I know that when Intel pulled out of the digital watch market, the surplus unsold Microma watches were used for 5 year service awards.

I did write something up in an earlier thread in this section, a couple of years ago: http://www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=39167



SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> Note: The watch face has an Intel logo engraved above the LCD window.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm still looking out for both the above types to add to my own collection of Intel watches. :search:


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

By the way, besides Intel / Microma and your National Semiconductor LCD's ....

Another big US chip manufacturer (at the time) was Fairchild (who later begat Intel).

They also appear to have dabbled in the digital watch market in cahoots with Yema France.

I come across YEMA Fairchild *LED*'s quite often, when running searches on eBay (on Yema).

Here's a thread about an LED model on Chronomania: http://www.chronomania.net/forum/mix_entry.php?id=93548


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## seemore (Oct 25, 2007)

Funny isnt it i much prefer the national semiconductor watch, but if people collect microma,s then i suppose that is what pushes prices up. I just thought it remarkable that a watch that old just worked when i put battries in it.


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## alg59 (Mar 4, 2011)

the twin battery one looks good. must be rare to have twin batteries


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## simonsaysbet (Jul 13, 2010)

like these early leds. would love to find a speedmaster for reasonable money. Afraid of expensive/ hard to fix break downs


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## simonsaysbet (Jul 13, 2010)

I have been admiring the speedsonics as well. The movement is amazing, so smooth. Like i imagine the sieko spring drives must run. I am yet to see one.


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## Thewatchman (Sep 16, 2011)

i see that another Microma black & gold bladerunner watch has gone of a silly amount of money again. i personally find the sliver one more attractive, hint ; )


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## brettw (Mar 5, 2017)

Hello Anyone still interested in the history of Microma watches. My father and two of his buddies, from Stanford and Fairchild days, designed, built, and started Microma watches. My father was a key ME in the R&D labs of Fairchild Semiconductor. Later he went on to found Pacific Western System (CA. closed in 2009) and co-found PWS Japan (still running, though long since separated from the CA PWS). The Microma watch resulted when my dad and his friends were discussing the lack of a solid state wrist watch that was water proof. One of the friends was a blue water competitive sailor. Thus began the discussion which led to Microma. There is much more; but I'm not sure anyone would still be interested.


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## vinn (Jun 14, 2015)

posting pix., ; for a fiver; post um in the GALLERY.


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## luddite (Dec 11, 2009)

It's amazing what some people collect, if I had owned either of those they would have been binned ages ago.


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

brettw said:


> There is much more; *but I'm not sure anyone would still be interested.*


 I`d be amazed if that was true :biggrin:


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## brettw (Mar 5, 2017)

I'm new to this forum. My father just passed away last month. In reflection on his life we looked up Microma watches and found almost no information prior to Intels acquisition. Personally I didn't think anybody would care about such old history . But I happened to stumble onto this website. Gordon Moore was an executive at Fairchild semi conductor where my dad was mechanical engineer in the R&D department. They also became friends over the years. Moore went from Fairchild to Intel. My dad went from Fairchild to Siliconix and then started his own company, PWS. From PWS my dad and two friends started Microma. The driving force was to create a water proof solid-state wristwatch. The bezels were made from High Molly steel and were machined in an old radar station on top of Winnemucca mountain, in northern Nevada. I'm not making this stuff up. My dad accomplished a lot of things in his life, but microma is mostly forgotten. It's nice to share some of the old memories. There's a whole lot more to the story.

If anybody wants to hear the rest the story, I'm more than happy to share from time to time. If not, that's OK. Microma watches were definitely not the best watches built. But they did advance watch design overall.

Let me know if anybody wants to read anymore information.


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