Okay, so I’ve been seeing these Casio F-100 watches pop up everywhere, especially because of that whole Alien movie connection. I thought, “Hey, that looks pretty cool, I gotta get my hands on one and mess around with it.”
Getting Started
First things first, I needed to actually find one. These aren’t exactly sitting on shelves at your local Walmart. I hopped online, did some digging, and finally scored one on an auction site. It was a bit beat up, but hey, that adds character, right?
The Teardown
Once it arrived, the real fun began. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about taking it apart. I’m no watch expert, but I’ve tinkered with electronics before. I grabbed my smallest screwdriver, popped the back off, and…wow. It’s surprisingly simple in there. Just a small circuit board, a battery, and the LCD screen.
- Battery: Easy enough to replace. It’s just a standard watch battery.
- Circuit board: Looked pretty clean, no obvious damage.
- LCD: This was the tricky part. It’s connected with these tiny, delicate ribbon cables. I made sure to be extra careful with those.
Cleaning and Tweaking
The watch was pretty grimy, so I gave everything a gentle cleaning with some isopropyl alcohol and a soft cloth. I also noticed the buttons were a bit sticky, so I carefully cleaned those out too. I even thought about maybe trying to mod it, like adding a backlight or something, but I decided to keep it original for now. Maybe that’s a project for another day.
Putting It Back Together
Reassembly was basically the reverse of taking it apart. I just had to be super careful with those ribbon cables again. I popped in a new battery, screwed the back on, and…it worked! The display lit up, the buttons worked, and it was keeping time. Success!
The Final Result
Honestly, it was way easier than I expected. Now I’ve got this cool, vintage Casio F-100, with a bit of movie history attached to it. And I can say I took it apart and put it back together myself. Feels pretty good. Now, I just need to find a good way to show it off…maybe I’ll wear it to the next sci-fi convention I go to.
