Pulsar P1

Erste vollelektronische Uhr der Welt, hergestellt in limitierter Stückzahl von der amerikanischen Firma Hamilton.

Die Vorstellung des ersten Prototyps dieser Entwicklung erfolgte werbewirksam in einer TV Show von Johnny Carson.

The Pulsar P1 was a milestone in the history of timekeeping and technology. It was the very first wristwatch with no moving parts, relying upon an electronic instead of a mechanical mechanism. It was also one of the first consumer electronic products that used microelectronics and the integrated circuit - known today as the "chip".

The Pulsar P1 was released to the public on April 4th, 1972 and sold for $2100 - quite a bit more than a car at the time. It was enclosed in a solid 18 karat gold case and had a time screen made from synthetic ruby. No expense was spared. Only 450 units were made. The P1 was worn by such notable figures as Elvis Presley and Yul Bryner. The P1 had no fancy bells and whistles by todays standards - just a single button which when pushed displayed the hours and minutes on the to 4 digit display and if held down for 1.25 seconds, began counting the seconds on the lower 2 digit display. There was no date, day of the week, stopwatch or other functionality. Still, it was a marvel of its time.

The original P1s were fitted with a 25 chip module hand assembled in a joint venture between Hamilton and a small comany called Electro-Data. These modules eventually proved to be unreliable due to the many discrete components and more than 300 individual connections so they were recalled by the company and presumably destroyed. For this reason, the original module is exceedingly rare with only a handful of known examples in existence. One P1 and 25 chip module currently resides in the Smithsonian Institution.