Digital Article - 2 classic books reviewed.

WATCH - the history of the modern wrist watch by Pieter Doensen, 253 pg. copyright 1994 This is a gorgeous, table-top book.  12"(30cm) x 9"(22cm) X 1"(2.5 cm).  It almost cries out to be displayed, with its white, glossy dust jacket that is highlighted by a bold vertical stripe of yellow - the band of a yellow faced Lip(brand) watch with a yellow striped band.

Starting from 1950 and ending in the late '80s, Mr. Doensen takes you thru the influential designers, giving you biographical information on their education and employment, and then takes you thru their particularly noteworthy creations.  All complimented richly with excellent photography.

He next takes you into the early electro-mechanical movements, explaining the differences thru illustration, copies of patent drawings and more photographs.

Quartz watches come next, at almost the exact middle of the book, moving from quartz controlled motorized watches to the digital displays, both LED and LCD.

Subsequent chapters address Automatic Quartz watches, solar powered, Radio controlled and Multifunctional watches.   There is something for almost every collector in the multifunction chapter: calculators, alarms, pulse counters, database/memory, chronographers, game, television, temperature and barometer watches.

Finally, the last 50 some pages are devoted to batteries and their construction,
history of the influential manufacturers, a variety of statistics and list of watch related museums.  253 pages of highly enjoyable reading, filled with hundreds of lush photographs.  Don't just be a collector, be an enthusiast, put this "bible" of modern wrist watch history on your shelf. 

TheDigitalwatch.com  has 14 NOS copies of this classic, available for $140 each, including shipping, to anywhere in the world. This leaves us with a very small profit which goes to the maintenance of this site.
PayPal and U.S. Postal money order's only (sorry). Only one per customer.
 Send mail if you are interested.
 

The Digital Watch Repair Manual by Louis A. Zanoni, 76 pg., copyright 1980. For many digital watch enthusiasts, the late Louis Zanoni needs little introduction. Mr. Zanoni worked with George Heilmeir at RCA on the earliest liquid crystal displays.  Mr. Zanoni built the displays and many of the circuits used with them. Later Mr. Zanoni went on to form a company, Zantech, which manufactured  various testing equipment for the LED and LCD watch repair trades.  The book at issue is still published, and still distributed by Zantech.

Mr. Zanoni moves smoothly thru the construction and power requirements of the LED watch.  He explains how the divider circuit arrives at 1 beat per second, starting from the common 32,768 Hz.(cycles per second) pulse of the quartz crystal. He explains how the case is part of the circuit in most digital watches.  He then goes into fundamental but extremely helpful basics of troubleshooting and servicing the LED watch.

Next, the LCD watch and the various types of displays is discussed, along with a chapter on repair of the LCD watch.  This section also contains several charts related to battery consumption based on current draw. Later, Mr. Zanoni explains about testing various crystals.  A thorough discussion of using silver based(conductive) epoxy for repairs, from timing crystals to wire bonds is discussed. The book ends with a chapter on calibrating your timing machine.

Some of the information may be slightly dated, and the book is simply bound with plastic spiral binding, resembling a thin technical manual  - it is. The drawings and photographs are simple black and white but more than sufficient for their intended purpose.  At the very reasonable price of $20(2006 pricing), this is a valuable first
book for the budding digital watch repairperson and will quickly pay for itself. http://www.zantechinc.com/

Reviews by:
Ed Cantarella, Editor
TheDigitalWatch.com