National Panasonic 7052B Flip Clock with Detachable Radio

[Daddy-O]

Here is an interesting beast. A National Panasonic 7052B from around 1970. This was made in the era when having a detachable transistor radio was a popular accessory. It has a quite a large display and the unit as a whole is very heavy. The AM/FM transistor radio runs off 4 AA batteries when not connected to the clock. It needs a thorough cleaning but is in basically good condition. Please ignore my reflection in the face plate - that's not part of the display.

[flipoclock]

Ooh, I like that, perhaps even better without the radio

[Guest]

Those are really cool and quite rare here in the US. I have the bottom half of one which was re-branded by Singer (the sewing machine company). It has the same clock movement internals as the RC-7589 with a few layout changes for switches.

[cyb3rbyte]

Very cool share. The triangle Panasonics are very interesting, considering they weren't around for that long. I consider this one to be the most interesting. Are the digits illuminated?

[Daddy-O]

Yes. The digits are illuminated with a neon bulb. I can't get over how heavy it is even with the radio removed.

[Guest]

The unit I have is illuminated the same way as the RC-7589 which was a 6v incandescent lamp. Perhaps they put in neons for European/overseas units?

[Daddy-O]

I haven't opened it up but it certainly looks like a neon from above.