Rediscovering the Romance of Travel Clocks
acollectedman.comBought a travel click by Braun a few years bact to put next to me when I work. The quality is abysmal, the hour arm is half to a full hour ahead after I used for a while. And it costs like 30 bucks I guess one just pays for the brand name while the product is the same quality as no-name ones on aliexpress for a tenth of the price.
What you really pay for in a Braun is the silent mechanical movement, no tick-tock to keep you awake at night. But while the movement is still allegedly made in Germany, the quality has gone downhill, as you point out. I had some Kienzle and Braun clocks in the 90s that were extremely good, but the new ones made under license, not so much.
The older ones are solid. A tale as old as 1990s corporate decline
I bought a casio, it's been great.
I’ve been building a retro computer BASIC operating system for microcontrollers.
My first project is a watch made from an ESP32-S3 with an AMOLED made by Waveshare.
A traveling clock could make a really interesting second project and, because it could plug in, a slightly less challenging one.
If you're going for a portable version, swap out the OLED for EInk and limit to 1min refresh. You're have battery life for months. Assuming you manage the ESP sleep states well.
wow, I remember stuff like this (though not 30's and 40's)
When I was young and traveled, it was before phones became ubiquitous.
I had to take a travel clock with me as an alarm clock. You couldn't trust a hotel alarm clock. So I had small sized clocks to wake up for an interview or a conference or a tour or a return flight.
I just forgot about all of this with smart phones and watches that get you up in the right time zone at the right time.
I’m currently working on a personal version of the Mecascape[0] (as much because of the cost as a chance to play with some hardware ideas). Taking it on travels is part of the fun.
My Grandma used one of these. Happy memories of many summer trips to the Alleghenies :)