A Forgotten Groundbreaking Solar Watch Is Back After 50 Years and Still Feels Futuristic

The 1970s were a wild time in watch design.

The introduction of quartz technology by Seiko at the very end of 1969 (literally on Christmas Day) led to the wide and rapid adoption of cheaper, more precise quartz movements across the industry during the next decade.

An even more monumental event also occurred in 1969: The Apollo 11 moon landing, where for the first time in history, humans walked on the surface of the moon. This event contributed to increased excitement about the future and space travel, furthering the proliferation of the Space Age design movement that had begun in the 1960s.

With fancy new technology at their disposal and futuristic styles more en vogue than ever, watch brands ran wild trying to outdo each other with angular, sculptural metallic creations featuring glowing digital screens that looked more appropriate to wear with a space suit than a business suit.

Nepro

Some of these designs have endured, like the Bulova Computron, the Hamilton Pulsar — the world’s first electronic digital watch — and the achingly cool Girard-Perregaux Casquette. But many more have been forgotten, such as the Neprosolar, a little-known concept from 1976 that was one of the world’s very first solar-powered watches.

Now, the reborn Nepro brand has brought back the Neprosolar with all of the retrofuturistic flair of the original from half a century ago.

Here comes the sun, again

The original Neprosolar debuted at the European Watch Clock and Jewellery Fair, the now-defunct trade show which would later be known as Basel World, in 1976.

A program from the show notes, “Nepro has been marketing solar-powered solid-state wristwatches for over a year now. Here is a new model of this type: LED display and solar-cell-powered storage battery. Note its particularly handsome styling.”

The angular watch in stainless steel featured a casquette design with a driver’s style display featuring a red negative LCD screen and a prominent solar array on top of the case. The watch also featured a brushed integrated bracelet with broad, flat links and a generous taper. “Handsome styling” indeed.

Bamford London

Solar watches were quite rare in 1976, let alone 1975, with the first arriving on the scene just a few years earlier in 1972 and the style not really catching on until Citizen launched the Crystron Solar Cell, also in ’76. Groundbreaking or not, as far as I can tell, the Neprosolar never actually made it past the concept stage.

That is, until the Swiss brand resurfaced last year in a collaboration with Bamford London that resulted in a modern recreation of the Neprosolar featuring the same basic design as the original but with contemporary touches like a black PVD case and bracelet and blue OLED display.

Now, the Neprosolar is back as a standalone, Swiss-made model sans Bamford, and the design is nearly indistinguishable from the original Space Age concept.

Nepro

The 36mm x 11mm stainless steel case is a more flamboyant take on the traditional casquette with more of a curved silhouette, and it still features red digital text on a black background that’s only visible with the push of a button, though the display has been upgraded to an OLED screen like on the Bamford version, which makes the time brighter and easier to read. The watch also features a date and power reserve indicator to let you know when you need to expose the Neprosolar to the sun.

The top of the watch maintains the very visible array of solar cells from the original, which helps to distinguish the Neprosolar from similar retro-futuristic digital watches. The GP Casquette, Hamilton PSR and Bulova Computron all run on standard, battery-powered quartz movements — not solar power. The integrated bracelet also looks identical to the original, but I assume the links and clasp have been upgraded to modern standards (Neprosolar’s website is admittedly pretty scant on details.)

Nepro

Pricing and Availability

One especially cool feature of the reborn Neprosolar is its matching Space Age packaging. As noted by A Blog to Watch in their review of the watch, the watch “box” is actually a spring-loaded aluminum cylinder, allowing the watch to dramatically rise from the chamber like some alien artifact. The box is also styled like a time capsule, with the text “Designed in 1975, do not open before 2025” on the top.

Pricewise, the Neprosolar lands in the middle of modernized ’70s digital watches on the market with an SRP of $856. That puts it above the $375 Bulova Computron, right in line with the $845 Hamilton PSR and well below the only luxury watch in this style, the Girard-Perregaux Casquette 2.0, which, before it sold out, retailed for $4,960.

Nepro

Neprosolar

Mid-century brand Nepro returns and brings with it a faithful but modernized version of its forgotten solar-powered casquette concept from 1976.

• $856 at Nepro

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