# Something You Dont See Every Day: Omega Electroquartz Desk Clock



## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Afternoon all

Well, after whats been a pretty rubbish week, this arrived and has cheered me right up!










Introduced in 1968 these where basically the predecessors to Omegas quartz revolution of the 1970's, they were produced in very limited numbers and from what I can gather weren't commercially available, virtually all of them where sent to large Omega retailers and display clocks or given as gifts by Omega.










I bought this one from a chap in France, it is only the third one I have ever seen and the only black dial version, the only other one I have seen in the flesh is owned by Swiss Time Services and resides in their museum display.










What makes it so special is the movement, yes thats right it requires 4 AA batteries and as you can see the technology is pretty old school, but man is it accurate, I have had it for four days and it hasn't missed a second, I trimmed it in when it first arrived and it is bang on, apparently according to Journey Through Time it should be as accurate as my Marine Chronometer and Megaquartz Stardust, variation of +- 1 SPM, pretty impressive even my modern standards










Everything about the clock smacks of hand made limited run manufacture, even down to the glass which when dismantled is noticeably hand finished on the edges to fit the case, the case is hard plastic with a steel inner shell/ hub for the workings to be mounted on! It weights about a kilo and is very marmite, I personally love the design, my wife thinks it looks 'cheap' sigh! Anyway thought I would show it off, not something you will see everday and certainly not something i'm likley to find for sale again anytime soon!










Cheers Tom


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## Vaurien (Jul 19, 2010)

Really impressive! :notworthy:

Thank you for sharing


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## ETCHY (Aug 3, 2004)

A fantastic & very interesting item, thanks for posting details :thumbsup:

Technology was so much cooler then :astro:

Dave


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Thanks chaps

It is a very impressive piece of kit, the images really don't do the movement justice, what amazes me though is that one year later this technology was in a wrist watch! The quartz on it is huge and the circuit board is just a work of art, really just amazing, whats more amazing is that even unserviced (which is not something I think even STS would want to try) it is absolutely bang on time!

Cheers Tom


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Ceu...the other person on the Forum who has one --- not me I hasten to add!

I seem to remember that whenever the date changed over, it was such a loud click I'm sure it would have woken me up!


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Oooh, I love it. I want one (not trying to sound like Newwy here). I'll probably never get one. It just ooozes retro, futuristic cool. Like UFO and Captain Scarlett and You Only Live Twice and Barbarella.

You showed us the face and the innards, how about a pic of the side profile and back when assembled. If only just to torture me some more. Are the hands or dial lumed at all?

BTW, those AAs need to dressed up in 1968ish style. Over on a Star Trek prop forum, a fellow made up some definitive communicator replicas, and a crowning touch were replica EveReady battery labels from the 1960s. Here's the labels being slid onto the contemporary Duracells (N type iirc), and here they are in place. Here's the zip file of his labels. I don't know which will fit a AA, you might have to fiddle around a bit to get the right size. I think he made them by cutting out the label to fit the battery, then laying clear packing tape over the cut label, and tracing the tape with an X-acto leaving a 1/2 an inch at the end to wrap over and make the cylinder.

That would be the crowning touch on your ultra-rare Omega!


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Thanks for all the comments chaps, here is a pic with the back on, as you can see pretty cool:










Cheers Tom


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## Davey P (Sep 9, 2010)

Fantastic mate, that looks mint! :thumbsup:


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## GASHEAD (Aug 27, 2009)

That is very cool. Bet it cost a pretty penny! Well done.


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## sam. (Mar 24, 2010)

Now i wouldn't mind that on my desk, that's for sure!

very cool clock!


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## brokenbox (Sep 20, 2010)

Very interesting. Given the fashions these days you could whack a strap on that and you could market it as the most massive oversize watch EVER :wink2:


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

GASHEAD said:


> That is very cool. Bet it cost a pretty penny! Well done.


It wasn't mega cheap, that said, the Marine Chronometer ships clocks produced by Omega with Megaquartz 4.1 Mhz quartz circuits sell for Â£3500 - Â£5500 currently, this certainly didn't set me back that much and the accuracy is virtually the same

Cheers Tom


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## martinus_scriblerus (Sep 29, 2008)

The right item for the Command Centre of the Dickstar1977 Enterprises.

Completely cool!


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