Argentina
Czerweny is an Argentinian company that entered the microcomputer market as Czerweny Electrónica in 1985. The first computers Czerweny started to sell were rebranded Timex Sinclair computers (TS1000 and TS1500) imported from Timex of Portugal. No modifications were made, just a new label but later they started to make local production and upgrading all models. Czerweny also imported through Timex of Portugal Sinclair ZX Spectrums as the CZ 2000 with a black version of the TS1500 casing. This happened because of the conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom, being that the UK was the home of Sinclair Research and Ferranti, Argentina had no access to the ZX Spectrum, the ZX81, or the Ferranti ULAs.
So Timex of Portugal exported to Argentina:
- TS1000 rebranded as CZ1000
- TS1500 rebranded as CZ1500
- Sinclair ZX Spectrum as CZ2000
After the import phase, Czerweny started to make upgraded clones of the imported computers namely:
- CZ 1000 Plus: same specifications as the CZ1000 but new board design, new casing with rubber keys, 1 joystick port, video composite out, and a reset switch
- CZ 1500 Plus: looks like a CZ 1000 Plus but with 16K RAM and 1500 Plus where 1000 Plus is printed in the top casing. New board design, Ferranti ULA, single 16K RAM chip.
- CZ Spectrum: same improvements as the CZ1000 but for CZ2000 and 2 joystick ports
- CZ Spectrum Plus: a Spectrum issue 4B clone board that looks like an issue 6 board with a Spectrum + keyboard, smaller casing, the same improvements as previous models, and all BASIC messages translated to Spanish. This made a lot of software to be incompatible with this machine.
Because of the Argentina/UK conflict, Czerweny did not have access to Ferranti ULAs and with permission of Sinclair, Timex of Portugal served as an intermediary to allow Czerweny to have them. Timex also sold components to Czerweny as rubber keys for the 1000/1500 Pluses.
In June 1986 a fire destroyed the Czerweny Electrónica factory that generated the end to the computer production.