Four years ago this month, WatchTime recognized a true milestone in horology with its four-page featured titled, “The Hamilton Pulsar: A Space Odyssey.”
Written by Lucien F. Trueb, with excellent photography by Gunther Ramm (including both case and dial images with LED time display illumination, and exposed circuit module details), this article puts the history, impetus, and technology in perspective. During a twenty-year period beginning in the early 1950s, centuries-old approaches to timekeeping were abandoned.
Ironically, James Bond’s wristwatch featured in the 007 movie, Live and Let Die, had at its genesis a 1966 request from author Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick for development of a piece to be featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Bond watch evolved from miniaturization of that concept and prototypes in May 1970. Early designs were power-hungry and suffered frequent failure due to the number of interconnected integrated circuits they used. It took another two years for RCA to successfully replace this complicated engineering with a single, three volt integrated circuit. Cost of manufacturing dropped by over 92% as well.
Unfortunately, global competition and LCD technology was too much for Hamilton, and the company folded in 1977. Ironically, the “Pulsar” brand name ultimately went to Seiko, which supplied James Bond watches during much of the Roger Moore tenure as 007. “Hamilton” is now owned by the Swatch Group, along with Omega — the “choice” watches for the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig James Bond films.
Mr. Trueb concludes this WatchTime article, however, by noting: “Hamilton manufactured a total of approximately 100,000 Pulsar wristwatches, most of which still exist today.” There were, of course, many styles of Pulsar in addition to the one featured in Live and Let Die.
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