Hi Kimmo,
This was a treat to read through. Who knew that there was such a big market for crappy smart bands. Looks like you have a promising alternate career in digital watch repair if you need!
Regards,
Sam
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That’s a fair few watches!
Did you get anywhere with them?
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They’ve been consolidated into a single package (except the FS-00 which I bought a bit later), and have apparently left the Buyee warehouse, but I’m yet to be furnished with a tracking number.
It’s all a bit vague because everything on that site is a translation from Japanese; it’s a tad nerve-wracking but stuff costs about 60% what you can find it on eBay for.
I’ll try to fix up and flip most of them, and probably only keep two or three.
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Hi @Kimmo
That is quite the collection! It also looks like a fair few of them are working and keeping time quite well too.
Yeah, I’ve bought something like eighty in the last four months or so… The Japanese often sell them without even trying a battery in them, with a whole bunch of disclaimers washing their hands of it - once sold they don’t want anything more to do with it. I’ve bought probably thirty or more which weren’t running, and only had a couple of duds. All those in the drawer are running fine, and there’s another dozen or so awaiting batteries and/or servicing on the desk (seized pushers are a good way to get a nice vintage watch for cheap).
Once I’ve checked out the watch, cleaned it up and maybe popped in a battery, I’ll synchronise it with my phone, put the hourly chime on and stick it in the drawer (I really need to come up with a better storage situation)… I gather quartz crystals speed up very slightly as they age, at least in the first few years, and the spread of bip-bips seems to confirm this, with only one or two running very slightly slow.
Most of them have a little variable capacitor to adjust the speed; I should see about giving them a tweak.
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Yep, back in about 1980 I worked for the Canon calculator distributor, and even then japanese customers would buy a new calculator rather than replace a battery. Japan domestic market was bigger than rest-of-the-world market.
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