Lorus v Armitron v Xonix
As you can see, pretty much identical designs.
Came any of them first, or was there yet another watch?
Pricewise they are not too far apart: the Xonix is £18 on AliExpress (but about £27 on amazon), the Armitron is £23, the Lorus £27. This makes no sense as homage watches, especially as none of these brands carry a serious clout.
Perhaps they are all made in China, with different branding put on?
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Balthazar
UK-based German expat. Likes cheap watches. Not bothered about brands.
Member since
Last active: 13 min ago
Lorus is no longer but was once a real brand.
Armitron is still around and thriving.
Xonix is obviously the weak link in this discussion.
Lorus is no longer but was once a real brand.
Armitron is still around and thriving.
Xonix is obviously the weak link in this discussion.
Xonix has been making watches since the 1970s. I think the three brands are of a similar age. With "who came first" I was talking about those watch models though, not their brands.
I am actually suspecting that Xonix is in this case the strong link in the discussion, i.e. making the actual watches, with the other brands possibly just putting their branding on it. That's just a theory though.
Xonix has been making watches since the 1970s. I think the three brands are of a similar age. With "who came first" I was talking about those watch models though, not their brands.
I am actually suspecting that Xonix is in this case the strong link in the discussion, i.e. making the actual watches, with the other brands possibly just putting their branding on it. That's just a theory though.
According to their website claims?
Nope.
Lorus and Armitron are legit.
According to their website claims?
Nope.
Lorus and Armitron are legit.
Yes, Xonix claim that on their web site. Although it is not entirely clear whether that claim extends to watches, or just consumer electronics in general. Their AliExpress presence is ancient by Ali standards, didn't know Ali has been around that long.
I know that Armitron and Lorus are legit. But legit companies have been outsourcing manufacturing to China. My latest Casio is made in China. There are legit car companies that have been making essentally the same car with different brandings. That has happened in the watch industry too, even going back decades.
Aren't these all ripoffs of a Casio?
Yes
Yes
We do associate this look with Casio, but back in the 1970s there were other brands (including Seiko or Dugena) making watches of broadly this look. And if I take a somewhat similar Casio, say the W218HD...
...and compare it with the three watches I started the thread then... although they look similar, the Casio looks less similar to the three than they look similar to one another. The three all have a fourth pusher, the Casio has 3. The three have MODE, RESET, LIGHT and ST/STP written beside the dial (the Armitron has EL instead of LIGHT), with the Casio this is underneath/above, and the ST/STP pusher is on the other side.
So, this is close but no cigar. There may be another Casio model that is a better match, but this ain't it.
BTW the Skmei XK1683 also sports this look, looking more like those three than the Casio (though it does not share the WATER RESIST below the dial):
I have kind of lost the point of this discussion, all of the watches shown on this page are much later designs with much bigger LCD displays, the very early digital watches bare much more resemblance to the F91w with a smaller LCD , I'm not exactly sure when the 1st LCD digital came out but I'm pretty sure everything was LED before that?
The point was to find the original that these three watches are based on, and it may be that one of them is itself that original. And, yes, I think the original would be more recent, not one of the original LCD designs.
LEDs came earlier than LCDs, but not by much - was the same with calculators. Roughly 3 years I'd say. Just looking on ebay I found a Seiko LCD watch from 1975, and I'm not aware of any LED watches before 1972.
I’d wager that the Armitron came first.