Saturday, April 5, 2014

Mechanical Digital - The Lucerne Digital Watch

Several years ago while participating on watch forums (formerly horomundi.com, now revo-online), I came across a rather interesting watch - the Digital.

Despite my attempts to look for a Lucerne watch company i.e. manufacture of sorts, I have been unable to find any. So I suppose these are generic movements encased in Switzerland and then branded as Swiss Made. I managed to get a few off eBay and had them serviced and restored several years ago. The movements were serviced but the case remained unpolished. Some work I need to do in due course.

So here are my four Lucerne Digitals… The watch is named Digital as the display is digital - with two revolving discs, one for the hour and one for the minutes. These retro looking watches were common in the late 60s and into the 70s. Very simple manual winding calibres with a digital display.
 photo LucerneDigital01_zpsc5b21b53.jpg

And probably the one that I like the most - the blue edition. The watch ticks and the discs move but not jump. So unlike the more expensive Jumping hours, this watch is a revolving time. I had the strap changed to match the dial color. Shock resistant it says. I wonder...
 photo LucerneDigital02_zps624b2fa8.jpg

And now the brass or bronze colored edition with a brown strap. See how dirty the case is? Well, work to be done. Notice the font of the word "Lucerne"? Different from the blue edition.
 photo LucerneDigital04_zps93ec0a26.jpg

The steel black dial version.
 photo LucerneDigital05_zps18e86ff2.jpg

Another brass/bronze colored specimen but with a black strap.
 photo LucerneDigital03_zps63c036e3.jpg

The case back is a simple cover and the watch is definitely not water resistant let alone water proof. Words engraved "Base Metal Swiss". So is the watch "Swiss Made" or just the casing "Swiss Made". More research is required to get to the bottom of this.
 photo LucerneDigital06_zps9c387a7d.jpg

I will likely take them apart and see if I can have someone clean the case and maybe even chrome plate it again. Restore it to its former glory. I will also open the case and photograph it and post it soon. Stay tuned for more.

I finally managed to take it apart. This is the movement of the Lucerne digital.

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