Resurrecting a Vintage Ricoh Quartz

I was stricken by madness when I saw this watch on eBay.

It could be my irrational love for vintage ana-digi watches, or maybe I've been seeing one too many Cybertrucks rolling around Silicon Valley like going through a library of upscaled Playstation 1 video games.

Either way, the words that would leave my lips screaming would be the phrase: "I can't believe that thing is real!"

Model is a Ricoh Ana-Digi 122006, Black Dial. The watch houses a 7-Jewel Ricoh Quartz caliber 122 module. Case size is around 33mm and lug-to-lug around 40mm.

Ricoh was a powerhouse for developing early ana-digi LCD quartz. The chip on this thing is absolutely massive. The line of contact pins connects to the LCD unit showing the digital display.

The watch came in as a non-runner. After examining the module under a microscope, I was greeted with the deepest, barnacle-ridden, alkali corrosion I've ever seen. It reminded me of a sweet, powdered-coated piece of breakfast toast, only this one was shaped like an odd stroopwafel, and sadly... also wasn't edible.

Peg wood is a very versatile tool, and came in handy by softly removing material without scratching any of the components.

I couldn't tell you how many times I had to disassemble and reassemble parts of this watch after a few rounds of manual cleaning. I gave up counting after the 5th attempt.

I thought it was just a goner, until this happened:

The LCD module started working again, which was a very good sign. The pusher functions were still inoperable, and those also needed to be cleaned.

I ended up removing most of the corrosion. Delicately cleaning these parts are not for the faint of heart. One wrong move and I could have easily snapped a capacitor or contact pin, rendering the module useless.

After several, emotional rollercoaster rides troubleshooting this watch, the result speaks for itself:

If horological necromancy is a skill, then I think I've done my job on this one.

This watch is quite funky. It doesn't have a crown, and the only way I could adjust the analog hands was to manually wait for the appropriate time by securing the battery plate. All pusher functions only cycled through digital time, alarm mode and running seconds.

There's one feature that surprised me when I got this watch working again. I don't think anyone has mentioned this online, and its neat to see it captured on video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5zupqxrXas/

I've nicknamed this watch as the "Ricoh Cybertruck". Thankfully, this one doesn't really pull hairs or chop vegetables like the actual Cybertruck.

I'll report back if I can julienne a carrot with this thing. So far it looks very sharp, sleek and sci-fi on the wrist.