When exactly did the flip clock era end?

[Friendly Scientist]

I don't think this topic has been brought up yet, but I'm sure someone somewhere thought about this:
When did electronic companies like Panasonic, General Electric, Copal, etc decided to not sell flip clocks anymore?

Of course we are not counting the flip clocks being made today, although I am not sure about their quality. Oops, I'm going on a tangent.

According to another topic regarding the futuristic Ken-Tech (sorry I don't remember the name of the topic starter rn), it seemed like 1976 was the year when the computer-esque LED craze started, around the same time cassettes were becoming an attractive alternative to 8 tracks & vinyl.

From Mackey's recent Youtube video about the white Copal 227, he said that Copal offered the clock from 1972 up until 1980. As of right now, I'm assuming the early 1980s seemed to be the time where flip clocks are no longer being sold. Coincidentally, 1982 was the last year car manufacturers gave the option for the 8 track, and 8 tracks were being produced via RCA club catalogues or in smaller batches until 1988.

What's amusing is that the flip clock and the 8 track popularities rose and fell roughly around the same time periods; the late 1960s to the early 1980s. That said, is there a somewhat similar story about the flip clocks being produced in very small quantities throughout the 1980s? From what I've seen/heard, there doesn't seem to be a flip clock made in the 80s (1981 and after).

Sorry Stranger Things producers, guess we're gonna have to go with the red LED clocks that seem to burn into your eye sockets. Maybe that's why the opening scene reminds me of that XD

[davidm]

This article https://blog.onlineclock.net/history...locks-watches/ Quote "....as the dawning of the 1980s saw digital clocks’ standard display become the LED or LCD screen."

I guess there was some overlap in the early '80s, LEDs were followed by LCD displays.

Personally I don't particularly like LED diplays esp in clock radios as they always seem to me to be too bright. All the ones I've ever had I've always ended up putting solar film over the display to tame those rays!

I much prefer LCD displays to LED and both are a lot more compact than flip clocks, I wonder how big a Fitbit would be if done with flipcards!

[Twemcopal]

VFD clocks seemed to appear straight after flip clocks and predate LED clocks generally. VFD clocks themselves became expensive to produce so LED clocks got the win unfortunately.

There were very small numbers of Panaplex display clocks made from the late 70's but they were far more expensive to manufacture than any other type of display.

Unfortunately when accountants became engineers is when cheapest was best (for them)

My two cents worth...

[Mackey]

I don't think this topic has been brought up yet, but I'm sure someone somewhere thought about this:
When did electronic companies like Panasonic, General Electric, Copal, etc decided to not sell flip clocks anymore?

To me the flip clocks were basically a 70s thing. While you can still see a few stragglers being sold in the 1980s, I would bet most of the major companies stopped by 1980. And yes, 1976 seems to be a pivotal time in the digital clock scene as you can see advertisements with both the flips and the "electronic digital" clocks.


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