Delphi calculator watch

Delphi calculator watch

Delphi watches aren’t all that common, and the ones you do find are pretty basic and reasonably low quality (if you’ve got a bucket of generic parts watches, chances are there’s a Delphi in there).

So it came as quite a surprise when this cool little calculator watch appeared with the Delphi badge. I’ve also seen a similar watch labelled as Dundee, with the same case and some of the same graphics on the keypad, but with a different module and functions – so maybe just a coincidence.

There’s a lot going on with this watch. Time (in 12/24 format) along the bottom, and the other functions (seconds, date, alarm, stopwatch, dual, calculator) along the top. Day of the week sits in the middle, and icons for hourly chime and alarm on the far left.

The best part of this watch (if you have other similar calculator watches) is the melody alarm. It plays Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) which is a great piece of music, and you get almost a minute of it when the alarm goes off, or when you test the alarm (alarm mode, bottom right button). Here’s a video (not mine) demonstrating it.

I’m a fan of calculator watches and melody watches, and haven’t heard this melody in another watch, calculator or not.

This particular watch arrived ex-eBay with the usual “doesn’t work, might just need a battery” which is similar to buying a house which has been burned down and has the seller description “needs a bit of a tidy”.

The original battery was still inside and had, over time, eaten its way through all the gold plate on the battery connector and started making its way across the other metal traces in a bid to devour the chip. Fortunately it was stopped in its tracks and some careful cleaning and soldering and conductive paste and cursing…and voila! it lives again.

There are a few of these appearing on eBay at the moment (late 2014) in NOS condition but not working and I suspect they will all have the same issues.

Still, for $20-30 you can’t go wrong and they’re pretty basic inside if they need a clean or a fix.

Here’s the setting instructions for the time and date, as requested below:

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8 Responses to Delphi calculator watch

  1. I have this watch and I was trying to figure out how to set the date/time on it. I stumbled across this article trying to find a manual that someone saved. Also, do you have photos of the watch you got with the damage to the gold plate? (& your repair process?)

      • Thank you so much for sharing the instructions and that video! Turns out the buttons aren’t working on mine (the outer ones are fine though). But at least I know it’s not just me not knowing how to set it.

        • No problem, if you wanted to try fixing it I’d guess it’s one of two things.

          If none of the calculator buttons are working it’s likely whatever goes between the keyboard and the circuitboard is dirty or misaligned (maybe a zebra strip or something — without pulling mine apart again, I’m just guessing) or the conductive material on the back of the keys is no longer working.

          If the former, it could just be a matter of cleaning the strip; if the latter, you can recoat the key backs with conductive ink to make it work again.

          Good luck!

  2. Hi,
    I know it is an old post but I hope there’s still somebody on the other end.
    I stumbled upon this while searching for a manual for a very similar wristwatch from the mid-80s.
    Could you please publish the whole manual or the rest of it?
    Thank you in advance!

  3. Where can I get a UCC391 replacement battery. I can’t find any batteries with the UCC in the name of the battery. I do see ones marked 391 but non that are marked with UCC before the numbers 391. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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