If you have the opportunity to support those who work for free, in this non-profit museum, and with the aim of opening a museum in the city of Rieti dedicated to Texas Instruments. DONATE !

With these few words to describe how was this great passion !!! qr code



In the 70/80 dwelling near the settlement of Texas Instruments, has allowed me to gather a lot of  material, production waste, purchases in the farm shop etc, in the following years, I continued with uncontrolled purchases worldwide. 
I want to thank all the people who have allowed me to acquire material worldwide and continue the expansion of the watch museum dedicated TI !


Here is how did the passion for Texas Instruments, then production of the famous calculator Datamath

the home computer TI99/4Athe famous watch TI-500   and


many other products that have made history !

 

From this was born the largest watch museum......


My little anecdote !!

When I was growing up in the 1970s, the first most memorable watch I ever owned was a digital watch made by Texas Instruments (TI) ... and when I got it for Christmas, I was living in the FUTURE !!! TI-500 LED Watch (Slim Dial) The watch was part of TI's TI-500 line of LED digital watches. The heart of the watches in this watch line was the same for everyone, but the style of the case was different. Although the LED watches of the era were quite futuristic as it is, the version I got is what I think can be considered the most futuristic looking watch in the TI-500 line. It had a narrow dark red lens that sat squarely in the middle of a "stacked trapezoidal" case. The narrow lens resembled the visor of a space robot.There were some special versions of this watch that had images printed, such as racing cars, at the bottom of the dial. Under the battery cover, two LR44 watch batteries are inserted which will give you around 30-40 days as long as you don't keep pressing its shiny buttons all day. 

A watch like this didn't show the time all the time. He would drain the battery in days, if not hours. LED displays weren't very efficient back then. To view the time, press a silver colored button that protrudes at the top right of the watch body. Pressing it once displays the time for about one second, then switches off. You can hold the button so that it is displayed longer and after a few seconds it will switch to the display of the actual seconds that are increasing. Press the button twice and it will show you the day in MM / DD format. It does not keep track of the current year. 

The only other watch button is recessed into the watch body at the bottom right. Use a pen or pencil to press it and you can set the time and date through a series of button presses. You can also "synchronize" the number of seconds, as I did every morning when I came to school and synchronized it with the school bell clock. I knew until the SECOND when the bell would ring at the end of the lesson!
That said, this style watch was the first in my life when it came to digital watches. Yet it was the only LED watch I would ever own for a long time. LCD based watches soon entered the scene in the late 1970s and I never thought I'd spend the rest of my life buying "cool" Texas Instruments digital watches !!