COMMODORE TIME MASTER LED 1976
Commodore Business Machines (CBM) is well-known worldwide as a leading producer of early personal computers in the 1980's such as C16, C64, C128 or Amiga. In the 1970's CBM produced a variety of office equipment including shredders, calculators and more. As it is not far away in technological terms from a LED calculator to a wristwatch - Commodore launched a series of economy LED watches in 1975. The first models with flat modules (without bubble lenses) had Swiss cases and were assembled in the USA (these rare versions have Palo Alto, California on the caseback). Later on TimeMasters were assembled in France and the last 1977 lots were made in Hong Kong however the circuitry was US made until the end of production.
The early flat modules had bigger diodes so as the market prices were dropping Commodore applied necessary modifications by shrinking the display and adding plastic magnifying lenses (these are the most common today). The disadvantage of such lenses is the impossibility of reading the time from even a small angle. The most common problem with CBM modules is a broken or missing battery contact plate which can easily be cut and shaped from any beer can or an old floppy disk cover.
Keywords: commodore led, time master
Market value: 50-250$ (condition, box)