Hamilton LED Digital Watch Review
Wednesday - 15 February 2012
Led Zeppelin turns 40? And their singer, or their guitarist, what was his name? Hamilton? Wasn’t there a Hamilton in that band? Earth calling nostalgic rock star: L.E.D. - LED as in light display, not classic rock and roll. LED as in that alarm clock with the big glowing electronic numbers you had in the 70’s when you were in the dead of night listening to Led Zeppelin on scratchy AM radio, LED that made you unplug your lava lamp and gaze at the face of an electric clock. LED as in making you wonder while you should have been doing your calculus homework, how’d anyone figure out how to make those fast-clicking digitalised numerals do that? LED just turned 40 my gracefully ageing friend, and American watch company Hamilton had plenty do with what today you no longer wonder about, is today as second nature to you as the lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven.”
It always wasn’t so, the wondering, I mean. You were wondering about those clicking digitised numbers at night like just like the rest of the world. LED kind of just came out of nowhere and was everywhere, and we liked what we saw. Hamilton made the first LED Digital watch, and called it the Pulsar. LED Pulsar was the rock star wristwatch of its day, made famous by the famous, including the iconic Sammy Davis, Jr. and Gerald Ford, America’s first post Watergate President. The world was amazed by the technology of scientific advancement in an analog age and we made it ours with the Pulsar.
The Pulsar was first introduced on late-night television’s Johnny Carson Show and made a splash in the James Bond flick ‘Live and Let Die, in the days when a movie-goer still got a taste of their gadgetry hero doing mind blowing stuff on a big screen that wasn’t digitally altered unbelievable-ness. That’s the spacey uniqueness of LED, one hand on a simpler time and the other ready to hit the keyboard of Steve Job’s Apple IIe, when Zep’s Page and Plant were still banging out the albums and hitting the stage as the biggest and best rock band that ever took the stage.
In 2010, Hamilton couldn’t resist revisiting those simpler times. They are marking the 40th for LED with the new Hamilton Pulsomatic, even the name stirs a 70’s revival in my head. As always from Hamilton: futuristic design, forging metals, shapes, and surfaces to spin in your head the familiarity with that decade you so long to love, a collector’s piece.
The Pulsomatic is available in October. And to electrify the moment to the fullest, if you hurry you’ve got just enough time to break out the old Led Zep LP’s and find someone that’ll lend you a record player.
The Pulsomatic is available in October. And to electrify the moment to the fullest, if you hurry you’ve got just enough time to break out the old Led Zep LP’s and find someone that’ll lend you a record player.
