Visit Guide
BLACK WATCH
The 1975 Black Watch was an iconic Sinclair product, for all the wrong reasons: it was one of the first commercial failures that started the snowball of issues for the company.
It was a digital watch, with a moulded plastic structure and a 5 led screen.
This innovation became its’ major drawback since it used a lot of energy to feed the screen. For this reason, the watch was permanently “off”. It would be activated by pressing a button to see the hours and minutes, and another one for the minutes and seconds. It was produced in three versions: silver, black and another silver version that also showcased the date.
The list of issues with this device is long and included problems such as:
- The electronic components could be easily broken by clothing static electricity, which created a lot of problems, even whilst they were still being produced at the factory.
- The watch would easily change its’ time reading if exposed to different temperatures.
- The batteries were very hard to change and would only last a few days.
- The buttons did not always work well and would sometimes cause the batteries to explode.
- The assembling of the product was very complex, even for Sinclair workers.
All this contributed to the high percentage of returned watches. The amount was so significant that it even started the rumour that there were more watches being returned than there were being produced.
With only a small team dedicated to repairs and returns, years went by without the company being able to fix the problems of some of the clients.
As a result of this, the company had negative number and results despite its’ £5 million in invoicing. Bankruptcy was averted by intervention of the government and by the introduction of the NEB (National Economic Board) on the company’s capital and day-to-day functioning.