This watch has been my longest watch project ever! 4 years in the making. Its a very rare and early digital model and like allot of my watches tells a story so if you are not wanting to read it you can watch my YouTube video here:
Back in 2018 I was going through my digital collection phase. This one came up on eBay with a display that was not working properly so I snapped it up as I really liked the chunky look the watch had and figured I could fix this one easily.
Above is one of the original eBay photos. You can see its trying to work. Once on my bench I start to take it apart. I find that this has a ceramic circuit board. I had never seen one before up until this point.
What is really interesting though is that it says “Casio” I did not expect to see this on a Swiss watch. After some research I find out that this is the same module, case and bracelet as a very early Casiotron Casio circa 1976. Seemingly Casio sold their technology under licence to Tissot! all Tissot did was chance the insert and used the rest as factory Casio. I think mid 70s Digital was the new kid in town and everyone wanted a slice. Tissot clearly looked to the orient to not miss out on this latest craze. Fascinating really.
Back to the repair. Once I had removed the module and the green plastic shroud I found a hairline crack on the board. Possibly from the wrong size battery being installed.
In 2018 I was still quite green to watchmaking and my attempts to repair this one ended in complete tragedy as I managed to make the crack even worse than it was rendering the board repairable.
After my attempts……
As much as I was disappointed I figured well its a Casio I will be able to find a replacement…
I did quite quickly but by way of a friend who just so happened to have a dead Casio one. He did not know what was wrong with his one so sent it to me so I could use. It was interesting to see the Casio version but opening up the module was a disappointment. Clearly this one was not going to work again either.
I put both watches in a bag and put in my draw of “to do ” projects. I setup a search on eBay for Casiotron and S11 modules.
Nothing came up. Occasionally over the years one would but it would be fully working and at top end of pricing so not obtainable for me. I had asked in forums and Facebook groups but to no avail.
I more recently got to know Adam Harras though my Facebook group. Adam created the Digital Watch Library which is an amazing online resource for all vintage digital watches. There are also many manuals and service sheets on there too. Check it out https://digitalwatchlibrary.com/
I had done some repairs for Adam and he had helped me on other projects too. I had recently been talking to him about my longest project but it was still a surprise when he messaged me with an eBay link saying this model had a compatible module. It was a buy it now £40.00 I did not hesitate!
This one is perfect. Its working and all it would need is to be swapped over plus the Tissot insert put on the module. All of this was shown in the video on YouTube. It is a straightforward procedure but the end result is 4 years of pain ended. I never give up on a watch if I feel it needs saving then I will do what is required.
So here it is the finished watch. Really cool and a slice of digital history. Its an early digital watch, its probably one of the first from Tissot too. Made to last and good quality steels. Big and chunky too.
This watch also features on my Vintage Digital Watch Collection video from April 2024
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