Bulova LED From Late Mexican President?

[bucko170]

Thought this one looked interesting.. ... .. comments?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271666614949?ru ... 26_rdc%3D1

[bruce wegmann]

Certainly, if the man was President for six years, somewhere, there should be a picture of him actually wearing the watch. Even without that, I must say it looks real to me...there was some very expensive work done to the case top. If the provenance
can be verified, this would be a significant name to add to the list of "notables" who owned LED watches (and the semi-working condition becomes a minor consideration; fixable, in any event). If Bulova had ever made these in solid gold, this would likely have been one of them (and, of course, it's not a Pulsar, but hey, nobody's perfect...).

[richard_uk]

Surprised someone hasn't bought that, maybe if he listed it as an LED watch instead of lead watch

[grenchat]

Looks like El Presidente’s lead display has some broken wire bonds.

Damn gringos!

[richard_uk]

I'd have thought more likely a display driver as it's the same segment right across the display?

[grenchat]

I'd have thought more likely a display driver as it's the same segment right across the display?

Greetings Richard!

It's been a while since I worked with these circuits, though I'm thinking 1 driver per 7 segment display.

http://mycircuitstudy.blogspot.com/2013 ... rcuit.html

Being a '70s watch, Bulova likely designed the equivalent circuit with diodes, assuming only 1 I.C. per module.

http://www.h-renrew.de/h/avrclock/avrclock.html

Regards,
Jason

[richard_uk]

I must confess I'm a total novice and the display driver thing was just guess work, going by the links you posted wouldn't that mean that exactly the same wire bond on each 7 segment display has failed?

[grenchat]

Likewise, I’ve never actually explored this module, but Abe had 2 Bulova Phantom LCD watches behave erratically (i.e. only displaying certain digits but keeping perfect time) in response to elevated temps. Being located in Mexico, I’d bet it’s a heat related issue first.

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=6399&p=41219&hilit=Bulova+Display#p41219

My second concern would be the very high humidity in Mexico. Perhaps internal corrosion is the cause. It’s hard to tell without some inspection and/or testing.