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Home » Retro Computing » Timex Sinclair 1000 computer: The can’t-miss that
missed


TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 COMPUTER: THE CAN’T-MISS THAT MISSED

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 8, 2024July 30, 2024

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was the U.S. version of the Sinclair ZX81. It was
perhaps Timex’s most successful home computer, but its success paled next to its
British counterpart. It was a real computer for $99 way back in 1982. The public
was tiring of game consoles and wanted more capability, so what could go wrong?

The Timex Sinclair 1000 sold for $99, and was the first home computer to sell
for under $100. It was a very limited machine with 2 KB of RAM, a membrane
keyboard, and no color or sound, and was discontinued in 1983.




INTRODUCTION

Timex initially dominated the US market with its Americanized version of the
Sinclair ZX81. But slow sales in 1983 made it fall short of becoming The Beatles
of home computers.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was a joint venture between Sinclair, Sir Clive
Sinclair’s UK-based computer manufacturer, and Timex, best known as a maker of
wristwatches. The Timex Sinclair 1000 was an Americanized version of the ZX81.
Timex replaced the RF modulator with a version suitable for use in North
America, added an additional 1 KB of RAM and added additional shielding, as the
FCC was very strict about computer emissions in the early 1980s. It used a
household CRT television as a display and a standard cassette recorder for
storage.

The ZX81, introduced in March 1981, had been extremely successful in the UK.
Timex initially sold a 1K version of the ZX81 under license, but announced a
slightly enhanced model, the Timex Sinclair 1000, on April 20, 1982. Timex
introduced it to the market in July 1982, priced at $99, and launched a price
war.


INITIAL SUCCESS

It’s been largely forgotten over the years, but initially, the Timex Sinclair
1000 was very successful. It sold 500,000 units in 1982 in spite of only being
on the market for half the year. Timex struggled to keep up with demand, and
they outsold everyone. They didn’t just outsell Commodore, Tandy, and Apple.
Timex outsold all three combined. Commodore’s VIC-20 was the best-selling
computer of 1982 as a whole, but it was riding on the strength of its first-half
sales to do it.

The problem was Timex couldn’t sustain the success. After selling half a million
units in the first six months, the Timex Sinclair 1000 only sold a disappointing
100,000 units in 1983.

While the British ZX81 did find sustained success, selling 1.5 million units,
its US counterpart did not. The other problem for Timex was they didn’t sell
enough additional peripherals or first-party software to be profitable. Timex
discontinued the TS 1000 in 1983 and exited the US computer market entirely in
February 1984, after the TS 1500 and TS 2068 failed.

Demand for computers contributed to the video game crash of 1983, but Timex
wasn’t benefiting from it. In November 1983, the average street price of a Timex
Sinclair 1000 was half that of the fading Atari 2600 game console, a sign that
Timex was feeling more desperate than even Atari.


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The word salad in this 1982 newspaper ad for the Timex Sinclair 1000 shows how
difficult it was to market early home computers.

The TS1000 had a Zilog Z-80 CPU running at 3.25 MHz, with 2K of RAM and a
membrane keyboard. But due to the limited graphics capability, its competitors
generally were able to run faster even if they had a slower clock rate, because
the CPU had to do all of the work. The lack of color was also a drawback unless
the owner was using a black and white TV for display. Owners could expand the
RAM to 64K with third party add-ons. However, due to the machine’s architecture,
they could only use 56K.

The Timex Sinclair 1500 added more memory and a slightly improved keyboard, but
that alone wasn’t enough to save the product line. Sinclair’s handoff from the
ZX-81 to the ZX Spectrum in the UK went much more smoothly than Timex’s
transition.


USING THE TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was a bit of a mixed bag. Its graphics capabilities were
very limited, but it had a fairly powerful version of Basic for its time,
including graphics commands. This made it easier to write simple games on it
than on its main competitor, the VIC-20. But its 2 KB of RAM was very limiting
and the computer as a whole felt underpowered. The membrane keyboard was hard to
type on, and you had to get used to using hotkeys to enter Basic commands when
you typed in programs.

The TS 1000 also had what I consider a serious design flaw. It used the same
3.5mm connector for the power jack as it did for the tape drive, and it placed
all three connectors right next to each other. This made it entirely possible to
plug the AC adapter into one of the tape leads and damage the machine.


THE TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 POWER SUPPLY

Frequently when a Timex Sinclair 1000 turns up today, the power supply is
missing. When the computer went into storage, the AC adapter probably ended up
in the box of random AC adapters, where it was eventually reused or discarded.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 needs 9 volts DC, with a 3.5mm connector, with the tip
negative. The original power supply was .7 amps, or 700 mA. An Atari 2600 power
supply works perfectly, though its 500 mA probably isn’t enough if you use the
16K memory expansion with it. If you want to be safe, look for a 1-amp unit. Of
course 700 mA is fine but 1A will be easier to find. Higher voltage is bad, but
higher amperage is OK, within reason.


WHY THE TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 FAILED IN THE UNITED STATES

The Timex Sinclair 1000 only had connectors for a TV, tape recorder, AC adapter,
and memory expansion. Using a standard tape recorder was consumer friendly but
it hurt Timex’s bottom line. If your AC adapter is missing, you can substitute
an Atari 2600 adapter, just be sure to plug it into the right plug to avoid
destroying the computer.

Demand for home computers was booming in 1982 and 1983, and Timex was a
household name. Furthermore, selling 600,000 units would have meant it was
likely the third best-selling computer of its time, behind the Commodore VIC-20
and Texas Instruments TI-99/4A in a crowded market.

So what was the problem?

Commodore lowered the price on the VIC-20 and TI and Atari followed suit. While
the VIC-20 was underpowered and the TI was a good idea poorly implemented, both
of them were better machines than the TS 1000. They offered real, full-travel
keyboards so you could touch type on them, and they offered color and sound. The
Atari 400 was better than both of them except for its lousy membrane keyboard.
But all three were much better than the Timex. When the VIC-20 cost $299 and the
TI cost $450, there was an argument to buy the Timex and upgrade to one of the
others later. When all four machines cost $99, it made sense to skip the upgrade
cycle.

Timex lowered its price to $49 to try to compete, but the much larger software
library for the other three machines made them worth the money. Worse yet, all
the others had an automatic upsell that Timex lacked. While Timex let you use a
standard household tape recorder, the competition used their own proprietary
connectors. That meant you had to buy their $70 cassette drives instead of
letting your household tape recorder do double duty. Atari, Commodore and TI
made more money off their tape drives than Timex did off their computer. All of
them also offered disk drives if you wanted faster storage.


BETTER VALUE, BETTER ECOSYSTEM

The hidden price of the tape drive really meant a VIC-20, Atari, or TI setup
cost $120 more than a Timex setup. But most U.S. consumers were willing to pay
that. Then, as now, people were willing to pay a premium for a nicer keyboard
and nicer graphics.

In the UK, where Atari, Commodore and TI didn’t have a head start, the ZX81
fared better. But in the States, where all three had a chance to build an
ecosystem around their computers, they could afford to sell their machines at
break even or even a loss and make up the difference in peripherals and
first-party software titles.

Timex promised to offer somewhere between 25 and 30 first-party software titles
upon release. But only a fraction of them materialized. This was something of a
chicken-and-egg problem. It’s easy to understand Timex being reluctant to go to
the expense to import and publish a bunch of software for a computer that wasn’t
selling. But one reason it wasn’t selling was because there was more software
available for the competition. The competition understood that in order to build
a market for their machines, they had to offer some software themselves, at
least initially. And the profits from the software helped make up for any losses
they incurred in a race to the bottom during a price war.

It’s possible that the initial success confused Timex and made it difficult for
them to figure out what to do when sales faltered the next year.


WHEN A SALE ISN’T A SALE

This ad from the summer of 1983 encouraged consumers to buy both a C-64 for $389
and a Timex Sinclair 1000 for $45, then send the Timex to Commodore for a $100
rebate and take a profit. Thousands of people did just that.

Finally, many of Timex’s 1983 sales were a gimmick. In 1983, Commodore offered a
$99 rebate toward a Commodore 64 with the trade in of any computer or game
console. Discounters advertised the two machines side by side, encouraging
consumers to buy both machines, send the Timex to Commodore, and pocket the $50
difference. Commodore ended up with a warehouse full of Timex computers no one
wanted. Commodore employees used them as doorstops and sometimes scrounged parts
from them late at night. The CPU from the Timex Sinclari 1000 in Bil Herd’s
office ended up in the Commodore 128 prototype.

Timex was the loser in that deal. Sure, it sold the machine and made a tiny
profit. But it gained no additional mindshare, and no additional sales from
peripherals or software. Commodore got played too, but at least it offered the
rebate on what was at the time a high-margin machine.

Timex got its chance to play the spoiler, however. Commodore designed its
ill-fated Commodore 16 and Plus/4 primarily to compete with low-cost machines
from Timex at any price point Timex wanted to hit. Timex left the market and
Commodore, in a fit of something other than brilliance, released the machines
anyway. This unleashed half a million computers that had nothing to compete with
except Commodore’s other very successful machines. This was the first of
Commodore’s many missteps that took it from leading the industry in market share
to bankruptcy and liquidation in just 10 years.


DIFFERING ATTITUDES TOWARD COMPUTERS IN THE US AND UK

I think there was one more factor that made a cheap-as-possible computer more
successful in the UK than on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1980, the
British government launched a computer literacy project and put the BBC in
charge of it. This fostered an interest in computers throughout British society.
While the BBC commissioned a computer and most of its content favored that
machine, it did try to maintain some platform neutrality. That meant people who
couldn’t afford a fancy BBC Micro could buy a cheap Sinclair computer and still
do the exercises and learn.

There was no similar cohesive effort in the United States. There was a
government program called Chapter 1 to furnish schools with computer equipment,
and PBS had a television show called Computer Chronicles. But the interest in
computers didn’t permeate all of US society. In the small rural town in Missouri
where I lived during the mid 1980s, most people thought my parents were weird
for letting me have a computer at home.

Unlike the UK, the people in the United States who could only afford a Timex
were the least likely to buy one. Middle-class families were happy to buy a
nicer computer at a higher price, or just wait a year or three to see what
happened next. I get the sense that in the UK, there was a fear of missing out.
That wasn’t prevalent here.

I got mixed reactions when I posed that question online. So maybe the reasons
were more complex than that, but for whatever reason, the British ZX81 outsold
the Timex-Sinclair 1000 2.5 to 1, in spite of having 1/4 the population of the
United States.


A SECOND LIFE AND LEGACY

Timex’s machines did retain a bit of a cult following after Timex left the
computer market. The machines were inexpensive, so hobbyists would buy them and
use them like we use a Raspberry Pi today, for projects. It had a built in
programming language and could use a cheap tape recorder and black and white TV
for a display. That made it good for robotics and home automation experiments,
or controlling a model railroad.  Timex Sinclair 1000s still turn up from time
to time in the estates of mad scientist types.

If the machine broke, it wasn’t a huge deal. Replacement units were cheap, and
some inventory remained in the sales channel for years. I personally spotted a
lonely Timex computer on a shelf at an Osco Drug in central Missouri in 1993.

Furthermore, some of the machines’ weaknesses could be overcome. You could add
an additional 16K of RAM to it, making it more useful. And when TI departed the
home computer market soon after Timex, TI keyboards turned up in the surplus
electronics market. Radio Shack even sold them for a time, with catalog number
277-1017. Timex owners soon figured out how to rewire the cheap surplus TI
keyboards to work with their machines. If you ever see a Timex Sinclair 1000
with an external keyboard wired in, compare the keyboard to a TI-99/4A. There’s
a good chance it will match.

These developments, along with the ability to run software imported from the UK,
helped the machines survive longer than they otherwise would have.


HOW MUCH IS A TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 WORTH TODAY?

Although the machines are old, the Timex Sinclair 1000 isn’t terribly rare,
since it sold about 600,000 units when new. I see people trying to sell boxed
examples for $99. But unless it’s complete with all the paperwork and pristine,
$50 is much more realistic. A loose example is worth about $20, especially if
it’s untested. The keyboards frequently go bad, and replacements cost around
$22. They make good curiosity pieces, but nostalgia plays a big part in value.
That’s why less rare machines from the era are worth more. More people have
memories of owning or using an Apple, Atari, Commodore or TI computer in the
1980s.

That’s not to say it didn’t have a following. Here’s a nice series of articles
about a TS1000 owner, Brad Grier, refurbishing his vintage example. His
enthusiasm for the machine is clear.

Although a computer approximately four decades old still in its original box
sounds unusual, boxed examples of Timex and TI computers are surprisingly
common. Back then, any computer, even a $49 Timex, was a major purchase, and
purchasers would save their boxes and even the original paperwork. If someone
bought either machine and lost interest or upgraded to something else, back in
the box it went. If you do find a boxed example, look through the papers inside.
You may very well find a dated sales receipt, and possibly even the ad that
piqued the original purchaser’s interest.

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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He
started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up
to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management
since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O
gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University
of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in
St. Louis with his family.





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2 THOUGHTS ON “TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 COMPUTER: THE CAN’T-MISS THAT MISSED”

 * garyohuk
   July 9, 2024 at 2:01 am
   Permalink
   
   Sinclair had a reputation for developing really innovative products but which
   weren’t built well, or which had an irritating flaw (here black and white
   graphics).
   I had used a Commodore PET at work and knew the Sinclair machines were poor
   in comparison. I eventually bought a Vic 20 for myself and instantly
   regretted it as it was so underpowered, then they bought out the C64 and I
   felt this even more being stuck with my Vic 20.
   The Sinclairs caught that early wave of computing enthusiasm, but were
   replaced in popular use by the BBC Micro, which you have mentioned in the
   past. The BBC Micro was part of a computer education project on BBC TV and
   was really successful. It was developed by Acorn, which now lives on as ARM
   the developers of the ubiquitous processor corer used in most mobile phones
   today.

 * garyohuk
   July 9, 2024 at 2:10 am
   Permalink
   
   Hi Dave, if you DM me your email id I have a video I can share you might find
   interesting.

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