# Lcd Alarm Chronograph - A Yema That's Not A Yema



## john87300 (Oct 12, 2011)

My constant delving into the bargain basement of French watches brought this to my door earlier this week. Branded for the well known French YEMA company is this:










Firstly a boring piece of history:

In the late 1970's in a vain attempt to ward off the quartz revolution some French manufacturers consolidated together to form Framelec, who became more and more associated with Seiko. By the start of the 1980's, the French watch industry was in crisis and the French government with the help of Seiko forced Framelec and some of the major French makers including Yema into the government controlled Matra Horlogerie:

,










Within two years Matra Horlogerie was sold off to Compagnie GÃ©nÃ©rale HorlogÃ¨re, Groupe Hattori, in other words SEIKO.










My Yema seems very similar to some 1980's LCD's produced by Seiko brands like Lorus, Pulsar and Alba










i've tried to track down the movement in the Yema, but with no success:










Does anyone have an opinions or views?


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

I think you'll find it's a re-badged Fairchild.


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

it's a pulsar/alba/seiko made movement from the 80's

here's a plastic nos pulsar using the same one,

wookie


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

My bad. Yema and Fairchild shared LED watch technology - not LCD.

Back in the 70s: http://forum.chronom...ry.php?id=93548

If you search on Seiko's database, Y799A is recognised as a caliber / movement, so Wookie is correct.


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## john87300 (Oct 12, 2011)

DeeDubya said:


> My bad. Yema and Fairchild shared LED watch technology - not LCD.
> 
> Back in the 70s: http://forum.chronom...ry.php?id=93548
> 
> If you search on Seiko's database, Y799A is recognised as a caliber / movement, so Wookie is correct.


Thanks DW, it's interesting you mentioned the Fairchild/Yema collaboration, which I'd actually come across before. I've got a Jaz LED on it's way, and I'm interested to see what's running it, in light of the connection between Jaz, Yema, Fairchild and then Seiko.



wookie said:


> it's a pulsar/alba/seiko made movement from the 80's
> 
> here's a plastic nos pulsar using the same one,
> 
> wookie


Thanks Wookie, that's confirmed it as a rebadged Seiko brand as far as I'm concerned, and an unrecorded bit of French watch history as well. Now I just have to spend a couple of hours fumbling around to work out how to use it! I'm far too used to old mechanicals so all this 80's hi-tec stuff is a new lark for me!

Thanks again to both of you


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## woody77 (Jun 19, 2011)

hi i have this one that has a swiss movement in esa i think not had the back off for some time .i like yema watches a lot.all the best woody77.by the way i like that yema lcd .


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