What is The Fortress E1T Clock? It’s the culmination of two like-minded individuals who like to tinker with vintage display technologies and turn them into functional time-pieces. This clock is unique in many respects. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only “commercial” E1T clock offered for sale at this time (or probably ever). Others have offered PCBs etc., but this is the whole enchilada and as such is a rarity to be treasured and enjoyed. The Fortress E1T Clock is a combination of old-skool technology married with a very modern micro-controller and 21st century case construction and aesthetics. It offers lots of customisation options, such as different “faces”, LED colours (bling), chimes, GPS or WiFi disciplined timekeeping and is also Open Source in its design philosophy.
The plethora of methods developed during the late 1940’s to the 1970’s for displaying/counting numerical information were numerous and varied. These included incandescent displays (e.g. edge lit displays such as those from Non-Linear Systems), neon gas based displays such as Nixie tubes and Dekatrons, vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs), light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Some of these possess a certain charm, such as Nixie tubes and Dekatrons with their warm orange glow and others not so much. What makes the E1T stand out from these technologies is that it represents the adaptation of another vintage display technology, the cathode ray tube into a discrete counting device. The E1T uses a cathode ray and some neat tricks to display a green line in 10 positions, each cunningly numbered from 0 to 9. These were used in early counters and here we use them in a rather unique clock.
New for 2023 is a revised case top for the Fortress. Welded acrylic tops are nice and all, but the failure rate of the seams (bubbles, imperfections) was proving unacceptable. Hence, some laser cutting and 3D printing yielded a nice alternative which now ships with the fully built clocks.
I have a very limited number of fully built clocks, complete with very rare NOS (New Old Stock) E1T tubes and a custom brushed aluminum case. For more details about the design and options, please visit the Sgitheach website here. Complete documentation for the fully built clock can also be downloaded here. The clock comes with a custom power supply and either GPS or WiFi depending upon what choice you make upon purchase. List price for these is $1600 dollars + S/H + CA sales tax (for sales in CA). I do have a stock of spare tubes, but these are reserved for owners of a Fortress only. Any questions, then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
