Hamilton puts a new spin on the first digital watch

One of the truly revolutionary watches of the 20th century is making a comeback as Hamilton Watch issues an updated version of its iconic Pulsar - the world's first electronic digital wristwatch On May 6, 1970, in a press conference at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City, Hamilton Watch revealed its Pulsar watch to the world Where the Aston had an analog mechanical display, the Pulsar had no moving parts and an LED digital display set behind a red crystal made of artificial ruby.

In 2020, when digital watches can be bought for a dollar, that may not seem like anything to write home about, but in 1970, it was like being beamed aboard the starship Enterprise The name of the watch came from the recently discovered pulsars, mysterious stars that blasted out radio pulses at precise intervals, and its aesthetic design was based on clocks and watches that Hamilton had created for Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey Despite this poor review, this first watch to be made entirely out of solid-state electronics was a sensation.

Before the rush of various tech companies started driving down the price of digital watches, Hamilton was pulling in as much as US$150 million a year off the Pulsar. . Source