[66Cooper]

I recently bought a wonderful Seiko TV watch as part of my growing James Bond collection and while doing a general search, came across this site that shows how someone made his own transmitter box. It looks to allow you to hook the watch to receive a signal from your TV instead of pulling from its antenna. Can anyone make sense of this? Might not be the right forum for this but figured I'd ask. WUS has never let me down!

http://www.dg1sfj.de/seikotvwatch/seikotv.html

http://www.dg1sfj.de/seikotvwatch/seiko_ntsc2pal.html

Oh, its in German so I used bablefish to translate. Now I just need a translator for electronics!

Cheers

 

[MINIDriver]

I recently bought a wonderful Seiko TV watch as part of my growing James Bond collection and while doing a general search, came across this site that shows how someone made his own transmitter box. It looks to allow you to hook the watch to receive a signal from your TV instead of pulling from its antenna. Can anyone make sense of this? Might not be the right forum for this but figured I'd ask. WUS has never let me down!

http://www.dg1sfj.de/seikotvwatch/seikotv.html

http://www.dg1sfj.de/seikotvwatch/seiko_ntsc2pal.html

Oh, its in German so I used bablefish to translate. Now I just need a translator for electronics!

Cheers

The problem with this watch is that it uses an analog TV signal. As you may or may not know, the old NTSC analog signal will be turned off in the United States on June 12 (This coming weekend), so all analog signal TVs will stop working completely. Now all television broadcasts will be digital DTV and high definition (HDTV) so you will have to have a TV able to receive digital broadcasts or add a digital to analog converter box to your old TV.

By definition, this 1983 Seiko color TV watch (if in the US) will not be able to receive analog TV signals after the 12th of this month).

 

[66Cooper]

Yep, but i was hoping that what this guy did on that site would allow it to be hooked up and have a signal fed into the watch. This watch picks up its signal thru an antenna off a its own receiver, but what it appears that site shows, is that you can plug something straight into that box that then goes to the watch.
I understand that it will no longer be portable but wanted to know if it could at least show a picture.
Thanks

 

[MINIDriver]

Yep, but i was hoping that what this guy did on that site would allow it to be hooked up and have a signal fed into the watch. This watch picks up its signal thru an antenna off a its own receiver, but what it appears that site shows, is that you can plug something straight into that box that then goes to the watch.
I understand that it will no longer be portable but wanted to know if it could at least show a picture.
Thanks

I don't know but it sounds plausible to me. It is a small LCD TV after all.

Maybe someone with better knowledge of this watch may want to chime in.

 

[66Cooper]

Thanks. I kinda think so as well. The main thing that the receiver does is exactly that, receives, or pulls the signal from the air waves..or whatever. I think what that guys site shows is instead of having the antenna receive the signal, you are just plugging a signal into it and piggybacking off your cable box. Again, not portable anymore but more for display reasons. Hope someone can help.

 

[dadawnabbott]

Very nice watch man! I too have a Seiko watch, it can play videos, music, and has a built-in FM transmitter to play in your car.

 

[66Cooper]

What!!!! You have to post more info about what you have. It is a TV Watch like mine, right? How did you get it to do all that? Please let me know.

The watch originally could pick up radio as well as TV but are yuo saying you have a custom setup?

Thanks

 

[andix]

it's not that difficult at all.

all you have to do is buy one of those signal re-transmitters, commercially available at any RadioShack or equivalent. then plug your A/V OUT from the TV into the transmitter, tune your watch and you're good to go. you don't need any complicated DIY kit.

just make sure you buy a transmitter that's comprised of ONE part. the most common models (w/ emitter AND receiver) might not work as they convert RF into proprietary frequencies that are not receivable by any TV set. you have to look for something that transmits so that the other TV receives with its antenna.

 

[66Cooper]

Do you mean an RF modulator like this:

I have one and am currently using it but it is almost impossible to get a picture. My setup currently is COAX out to COAX/RCA adapter, then an RCA/phones Adapter that pugs into the watches receiver. Please post pix for what you have.

Thanks a lot!

 

[andix]

your rig is just a modulator. I am talking about a retransmitter - something that takes coax signal and retransmits it on TV frequencies with means of a small antenna. it has enough power to cover roughly 1500 sq.ft - approximately the area of a house.

I couldn't find any links to it but I used to have one long time ago. lost it in the move. it was a cheap no-name asian-made little box but did the trick perfectly. got it at a bazaar in Thailand for a few bucks. I'm sure that if you google for "TV signal retransmitter" or something alike you'll find something. again, stay away from the two-parts rigs, they're not good for your purpose. you need a one-part unit, that would emit on freqs any TV can receive with a rabbit-ear antenna.

 

[66Cooper]

Ok, i get you. So you can plug in a DVD player to it using RCA wires and then the box with transmit a signal out that the watch will pick up, right? Or does it have to get its video source from a COAX? Problem with that is that the US switched to all digital and I would rather not have to buy one of those converter boxes as the intended purpose was to get video from either a DVD or even computer on the TV watch.

Like this:

They sell them as single channel or multi-channel. Whats best?

Thanks a lot!

 

[andix]

that looks a lot like the old box I had. yes, that seems to be the one. and mine worked with either RCA or coax. (not the two at the same time of course.)

but at a closer look the label says RECEIVER. can you post the link to the product, just to make sure it's the right thing? it should say TRANSMITTER imho...

also, watch for the specs - NTSC in the Americas, PAL in Europe.

as for single or multi-channel, I might go for the multi as I take it the watch's receiver might be a bit fussy, so you don't want to risk being stuck on one frequency that might or might not work. but then again, it's also a matter of costs, so if multi-channel is significantly more expensive you'll have to decide.

just one thing though - you won't be able to switch channels from within the watch. if you connect that thingamajig to a sat box, for instance, it will broadcast whatever satellite channel the sat box is tuned to at that moment. you might have known that, but just to make sure.

 

[66Cooper]

Ok, finally got it!!!

My little contribution to all Bond and Bond watch fans. The quality is way worse then it actually appears on screen. The picture is very clear and focused (for 1983 that is). Very happy to have been able to do this. Thanks all!

 

[andix]

congrats! you must be a happy Seiko TV watch owner by now.

so what exactly did you use eventually? might be useful for others

cheers!
andy

 

[66Cooper]

I used an RF modulator and went from COAX out, to COAX/RCA adapter, then from RCA/Mini Phones Jack adapter, to a phones Y splitter. Plug it all in and use the other Y phones connector to plug in some headphones and your off. I hooked up a DVD player to the RF modulator using RCA cables. You still have to tune the watch VERY carefully but I eventually got a picture. Sound as well. Far from portable but it achieved what I was after
Thanks again!

 

[cruvon]

Anyone currently with this watch? I have one and want some way of converting Digital, PAL IN Australia TO analog, NTSC supported by this watch purely for nostalgic reasons.

Thanks

 

[MBOT2000]

Hello all, I have one of these Seiko's coming and want to get a signal to it. Can someone post a detailed list with product names of components needed to achieve signal on watch? Thank you!

 

[66Cooper]

It’s been a long time since I have tried to hook this up and I’d love to hear anyones ideas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[time4d]

WOW!!! This model is amazing. So much vintage goodness

 

[rcpilot23]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum, just received a Seiko T001 in box and have been trying to get video on the display.
I do have an analogue TV transmitter which works fine on my other analogue tv's
Currently the sound works fine but the display is almost there but its fuzzy like horizontal lines.
Like it can't quite lock onto the freq for the display.
I did replace some of the obvious leaking caps.
Thanks