The summer of 2016 has been very hot and humid in Moscow so far.
The temperature has been hovering around plus 30 degrees Celsius for much of the summer, only today it is a bit cooler but still a respectable +25 C.
This kind of weather wreaks havoc on leather straps as you are permanently sticky so my watch choice under the circumstances is my Electronika 53V old school digital watch already catalogued on this blog.
The plastic strap on this model is not the easiest thing to use but I think I can just cope with it.
And the photo video below shows how I once performed a battery replacement job on it.
In fact it is still running on the same battery.
HoroLex: Лето. Жара. Электроника 53В: Мой летний выбор - Электроника 53В . Помучился с пластмассовым браслетом, но вроде приноровился. Часы на ремнях берегу на зиму, в ...
Another Electronika 5 29367 watch from my collection though this time not as Leader 10.
Electronikas are electronic -- or digital -- watches made in the USSR in 1970s-80s and then in the Republic of Belarus until about 2009. In essence, they are old-school electronic watches, although some are more advanced than others though they never go into Casio's territory for better or for worse. But some models have features that even Casio has never had (I think) such as both automatic and manual accuracy correction.
This watch is my Electronika 5 29367 made in 2000. Bought much later as a NOS specimen. Still working fine. The Electronika 5 29367 is probably the longest produced model -- from the 1980s right up to 2009. Photos are clickable.
And as luck would have it, it is time to replace the battery (and look at the innards).
The bracelet is made by the Vitebsk Instrument Making Plant.
It has the picture of a horse on the face -- perfect for the Year of the Horse.
As to detailed specs and watch controls you can find them in the manual (see below) in Russian.
Here I would like to note only two interesting features. First, you can turn the display off by pressing and holding for 2 sec button one (upper right). When the display is turned off, data are preserved and the watch continues to keep time and all functions continue to work. Second, there is an easy and convenient way to turn on the hourly signal (or chime) simply by pressing button 3 (lower left).
The back can be easily removed by prying it open gently.
Under it, there is another flat back which functions as a resonator, remove it too.
A Leader 10 old-school digital watch from Belarus... Actually it's from my collection but is made in Belarus by the Kamerton factory located in the city of Pinsk. In fact, it is none other than the Electronika 5-29367 in disguise, i.e. with a new name and on a wrist strap, whereas straightforward Electronikas were mainly attached to bracelets, stainless steel or not so stainless.
There is also a video review available on my channel.
So, Leader 10 (Лидер 10), bought by me for my collection for RUB 400 which is about US$13 in the month of February in 2012 -- almost two years back.
It shows time -- hours, minutes and seconds, date, weekday, has a stopwatch, an alarm, an hourly chime/signal, plays two simple melodies which can also be used to sound the alarm or, somewhat truncated, for the hourly signal.
Some interesting points about this watch. You can turn off display indication -- you use button one (upper right), press and hold for two seconds -- with the display turned off the watch continues to work, the hourly chime and the alarm are sounded if turned on. This function harkens back to the early days of digital watches when, in fact, you had to press a button to bring up time indication. No Casios or Seikos have anything similar. Apparently this function allows you to conserve some power and make the battery serve longer. As far as I know no-one has yet tested how effective this function is. But it is a thirsty watch; it likes its (electrical) juice and is the fastest to drain the battery of all Electronika watches in my collection, usually in about a year, faster with chimes and alarms on.
Also interesting is that many operating modes and functions in this watch are activated not just by pressing buttons but by pressing and HOLDING them for 2 seconds.
The watch uses a curious method for turning on the hourly signal -- you just press button three (just pressing not holding this time) (lower left) and the indication switches between showing seconds and the date. When the date is shown on the display in normal time mode, the hourly signal is off, but when the seconds are on the display, the hourly signal is on. The hourly signal can just be a beep sequence or an initial fragment of one of the two melodies that the watch can play.
It so happens that the battery has run flat and it's now time for a battery replacement job. The back is a snap-on (pressed) back, you pry it open gently with something, like, a screwdriver or a pocket knife blade.
Under the upper case back there is another flat back which is pressed on by the upper case back to the module and holds it where it should be in the watch. Underneath is some sort of a basic rubber seal.
The battery is in its place, just move the contact leaf away to get it out or to install a new one, no need to remove the little screw.
Some of my Electronika watches from Belarus. Not all of them, mind you, only 8 - a small part of my collection of Electronika watches, only those that I bothered to fit with bracelets. Bracelets are both Chinese stainless steel and Vitebsk bracelets (not ss).
What have we here. Actually, Electronika ChN-54, Electronika 77A chrome and gold-toned, ChN-04, ChN-01, Electronika ChN-55, Electronika 5 and Kamerton 65.
To start with, here's a couple pictures of my Electronika 53V watch.
It was a very hot June in Moscow this year and I was in summer mode with this cheery digital watch, tropicalized as it were, i.e. water resistant. July not so much now but August again promises to be a hot one.
