fedglass fauxtostream / clicheographs exposed
Elektronika Melody CH-55
Post Soviet production. Made in Belarus in.....06 I believe. Integral movement. I've had it a while. Nicest thing about this Elektronika is that it is thin. Very thin. And it's tough. Tougher than the typical current Casio or Timex. A couple of years ago I stop into a Target to pick a new watch. I soon realized that my old Elektronika was tank-like and a new Casio or Timex wouldn't hold up. Well.... G-Shocks are nice. I have one at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico now.... ;-(
Funny... Now the Western good is often inferior. At least in my opinion. One of my sisters came to the same conclusion and now rocks a vintage girls Elektronika. Such a minuscule watch. I swear the face is no larger than a nickel. Anyway...
Speaking of inferior.... Never buy a Casio from anyone but a reputable seller. The world is crawling with fake Casios. Truly useless bits of sh&t. Off by many seconds per day and none adjustable. The nice Elektronika above is self-regulating and priced about the same as a real or fake Casio as it turns out.
BTW, The Melody CH-55 can still be found on Evil-bay both new and used. Sadly no longer in production.
I also have an Elektronika 54 around here somewhere.... I hope it's not lost for good. The 54 is Soviet made & pretty old as LCD watches go. Early 80s I guess. It's also very similar to the 55.
A few years ago I was told this interesting story about an old Elektronika watch. This guy buys a nice used Elektronika from a street vendor in Leningrad late 80s. Dirt cheap at around one US dollar. He had worn the watch all summer and discovered something unpleasant about his cool find first day back at university in the US. The watch turned out to be slightly irradiated!
The guy finds this out accidentally...... An assignment in a lab class involved Geiger counters. One thing leads to another and he discovers his Elektronika irradiated. Apparently not dangerously so, but enough that the watch should best not be worn..... ever. :-) OK.... An exaggeration.
How the watch came to be irradiated is a mystery. Perhaps once belonged to an evacuee of Chernobyl? One of the liquidators? Good chance it was looted from the exclusion zone and later sold. Apparently a real problem at one time.
An acquaintance told me that while working in Russia early 90s he learned loads of stuff came out of the dirty area around Chernobyl. Folks were desperate for cash and would go in get stuff to sell..... He said he once ran across Russian cop with a Geiger counter at a street-side market. That's wild.
There used to be a Ukrainian seller of photo gear on Evil-bay who checked all his items for radiation before listing! Seriously. Seller stated just that in each listing. I'll never forget the first time I read one of the listings. I thought, "Whoa..... that's crazy."
Who knows.... At one time I had bookmarked a comment someone had made about a slightly radioactive lens he bought on Evil-bay. The buyer bought the lens expecting it to be a tiny bit radioactive because of the Lanthan glass elements. He brought the lens to school and checked and sure enough..... tiny bit dirty. More than one pointed out the lens wasn't made with Lathan elements. Ooopps.... Then again the comments could be incorrect as well.
19.07.14: I found the 54.
forums.watchuseek.com/f10/soviet-digital-watches-lets-see...
Elektronika Melody CH-55
Post Soviet production. Made in Belarus in.....06 I believe. Integral movement. I've had it a while. Nicest thing about this Elektronika is that it is thin. Very thin. And it's tough. Tougher than the typical current Casio or Timex. A couple of years ago I stop into a Target to pick a new watch. I soon realized that my old Elektronika was tank-like and a new Casio or Timex wouldn't hold up. Well.... G-Shocks are nice. I have one at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico now.... ;-(
Funny... Now the Western good is often inferior. At least in my opinion. One of my sisters came to the same conclusion and now rocks a vintage girls Elektronika. Such a minuscule watch. I swear the face is no larger than a nickel. Anyway...
Speaking of inferior.... Never buy a Casio from anyone but a reputable seller. The world is crawling with fake Casios. Truly useless bits of sh&t. Off by many seconds per day and none adjustable. The nice Elektronika above is self-regulating and priced about the same as a real or fake Casio as it turns out.
BTW, The Melody CH-55 can still be found on Evil-bay both new and used. Sadly no longer in production.
I also have an Elektronika 54 around here somewhere.... I hope it's not lost for good. The 54 is Soviet made & pretty old as LCD watches go. Early 80s I guess. It's also very similar to the 55.
A few years ago I was told this interesting story about an old Elektronika watch. This guy buys a nice used Elektronika from a street vendor in Leningrad late 80s. Dirt cheap at around one US dollar. He had worn the watch all summer and discovered something unpleasant about his cool find first day back at university in the US. The watch turned out to be slightly irradiated!
The guy finds this out accidentally...... An assignment in a lab class involved Geiger counters. One thing leads to another and he discovers his Elektronika irradiated. Apparently not dangerously so, but enough that the watch should best not be worn..... ever. :-) OK.... An exaggeration.
How the watch came to be irradiated is a mystery. Perhaps once belonged to an evacuee of Chernobyl? One of the liquidators? Good chance it was looted from the exclusion zone and later sold. Apparently a real problem at one time.
An acquaintance told me that while working in Russia early 90s he learned loads of stuff came out of the dirty area around Chernobyl. Folks were desperate for cash and would go in get stuff to sell..... He said he once ran across Russian cop with a Geiger counter at a street-side market. That's wild.
There used to be a Ukrainian seller of photo gear on Evil-bay who checked all his items for radiation before listing! Seriously. Seller stated just that in each listing. I'll never forget the first time I read one of the listings. I thought, "Whoa..... that's crazy."
Who knows.... At one time I had bookmarked a comment someone had made about a slightly radioactive lens he bought on Evil-bay. The buyer bought the lens expecting it to be a tiny bit radioactive because of the Lanthan glass elements. He brought the lens to school and checked and sure enough..... tiny bit dirty. More than one pointed out the lens wasn't made with Lathan elements. Ooopps.... Then again the comments could be incorrect as well.
19.07.14: I found the 54.
forums.watchuseek.com/f10/soviet-digital-watches-lets-see...