Having been stored in an actual shoebox for the better part of 37 years, Alpha comm is extremely well-preserved.  With it being a hero, the first thing you'll want to know is that amazingly, the stopwatch is still in perfect running condition.  The connection between it and the bottom moiré layer, though, has long ago been severed, so at this point the pattern does not spin.

The side of the moiré bezel has four tiny grooves, though oddly only on the lower half.  The jewel colors have been conclusively determined to be (left to right) Crystal AB / Hyacinth / Olivine AB, all sized at 16ss.  All five Aurora wheel hubs for the knobs and jewel bezels are the Vibe Type "C" variety shown on our Part page with a medium thickness flange.  Interestingly, screen caps from its appearance in Friday's Child and Patterns in Force have definitively shown that the original center jewel was a Siam 16ss; the same as what survived in Delta.  When it came off and was replaced cannot be known, but it seems reasonable to assume, owing to the likelihood the studio shop had no rhinestones of their own, that the current Hyacinth was taken off of a dummy comm probably in the third season to keep the hero camera-ready.  A unique extra-large wash of an Ambroid-type glue on the hub is now seen holding it down.

While impossible to determine definitively by eye, it appears likely that the aluminum moiré bezel ring is made from two separate parts; a very thin inner ring and an thicker outer sleeve.  The transparent #4 pattern layer looks to be held captive between the two, inserted with the printed side up (hence in a few patches some lines have been scratched off).  The outer ring bezel ends before it reaches the shell, exposing the inner ring beneath.  Thus only the inner ring actually is in contact with the shell.  The moiré ring is glued distinctively 1/32" to the left of center.  This off-position is a perfect match with screen caps, meaning it was originally built that way.  The exact center of the stopwatch (where the spinning second-hand shaft is) differs from the center of the ring by only about one one-hundredth of an inch.  Thus once Wah hot-glued the stopwatch in, he was committed to the position of the bezel ring above it.

It will remain a mystery as to why the paper moire pattern no longer spins.  The paper layer is now jammed tight up against the transparent layer, as if the spacer material between the stopwatch and the paper has expanded.  Pure conjecture, but perhaps this is a result of swelling from moisture or decay.  Long enough had the two layers been pressed together that part of the paper adhered to the transparency (evidence of exposure to moisture too?).  Then at some point the paper pattern looks to have rotated a few degrees, tearing off a small portion from the paper pattern (at the 5 o'clock position), which is still stuck to the transparency; damage that is clearly not evident in episode screen caps.  The bezel ring is also not glued down flush against the shell.  It is raised up ever so slightly - and a bit unevenly - from the shell's surface by a layer of a thick cream-colored epoxy.  However, there is no pronounced evidence of a re-glue anywhere, so all parts are likely in their completely original spot.  Around the exposed top inside surface of the ring are three separate glue spots (probably Ambroid) that probably prevented the transparent layer from rotating along with the bottom paper layer, given their probable glancing contact even when still new.

The stopwatch is a Swiss-made one-jewel model from an obscure maker named the Temlex Trading Company, with a spherical-shaped rewind knob (not cylindrical) and no reset button on the side.  The rounded back cover plate was removed by Wah to likely lessen the weight and ease height constraints, but the watch also has a secondary inner protective plate.  The watch movement still works perfectly - being able to start, stop, and rewind directly by the knob.

The watch is held in with hot glue, which is still a bit pliable to a press of a fingernail.  There is no evidence of any other glue residue from an early adhesion, so this looks like Wah's original installation.  Using this type of glue, which is easy to remove, makes sense in case the stopwatch needed to be replaced.  Three different types of glues and epoxies were used on all other parts.

The wind-up knob and the famous shell-protruding brass tube are not actually rigidly connected; the two parts are joined via a dark brown rubber hose.  The flexible joint was required as the stopwatch's wind-up knob has a different axis of rotation than the brass tube as it exits the shell.  The tube needed to be angled down (to avoid the midplate), which ruled out a fixed soldered or glued connection with the stopwatch.  That rubber hose, which served as a universal joint, has since fully vulcanized (turned hard and brittle).  As a result, the hose no longer grips the stopwatch knob - in fact it can be slid off the knob through a crack in the rubber.  Back in the day, the watch could have been easily wound with just a small flat-head screwdriver by catching either side of a brass peg soldered just inside the mouth of the tube.

Wah made a very unexpected alteration to the stopwatch assembly - he removed the faceplate (with the captured second and minute hands) and inverted it, so that the numbers on the dial can be read only through holes in the watch's movement.  Why did he do this?  Undoubtedly to provide a larger surface area to adhere the bottom spinning layer.  That's right... he did not actually glue the bottom layer spacer directly to the second hand!  Below are photos of a similar faceplate (not Alpha's, this is a duplicate), showing the cam connected to the back side of each hand.  The cam is what creates the reset action.  He removed the two miniscule screws that fasten the dial, carefully pried the two hands off their rotating axle shafts, flipped over the dial, and pressed the hands back onto their shafts through the holes in the reverse direction.  He didn't reattach the dial with those tiny screws.  Note to hobbyists - we DO NOT recommend you duplicate this procedure with your vintage stopwatch without special tools and lots of practice.  Ours, done by hand, had the second axle snap before it would slip off its hole:

Our final efforts to see what Wah used as a spacer was unsuccessful - the attempt could easily have caused damage.  What was used as a spacer between the stopwatch and rotating moiré layer will alas have to remain a mystery until such time, if ever, as the bezel ring is removed for any future restoration or a surgical fiber optic scope is inserted into a miniscule gap in the glue between the ring and the shell.

The top shell, as viewed from the underside, has holes drilled through it directly below the control knobs that penetrate the aluminum control plate.  The hole's purpose is unknown; perhaps Wah first intended to used screws to secure the knobs.  The mic grill material has its raised diamond peaks pointed upward (convex).  The control panel is actually cut too wide to sit flat into its shell area, so while the aluminum is nearly flush against the shell at the back edge (closest to the jewels), it rides up at the front edge.  This is why it looks like the mic grill is pushed in at one end - it isn't.  It is the control panel that angles upward. The antenna still swings open though not freely, and is best done by fingertip, owing to the left hinge wheel being canted off-angle and rubbing on the hinge axle.   This resistance is enough to allow the antenna to be held open all by itself at many angles, and there is evidence from screen caps (Omega Glory and For the World is Hollow...) that it has always been that way.  The hinge stop peg, a small length of brass wire which is soldered in, protrudes from the inward surface of the right wheel; hitting the inside of the top shell to stop the antenna’s motion:

Of the lower shell screws, all ½” long 2-56 sized, three are slotted round head steel and one is slotted oval head brass.  The midplate has hand-engraved into it nine digits - the original owner's Social Security number - that he put there decades ago as suggested by the police back then to help aid in the recovery of lost valuables (see link below for that story).  Patches of old crusty glue obscure some of the Velcro.  This was from that first owner trying to affix newer, stronger Velcro to the back so he could wear the prop more securely on costumes.

The bottom shell exhibit a deep sag under the Velcro and an upward distortion between the hinge wheels, with it partially filling the empty slot that once held the mid-wheel midplate segment.  This is evidence of the prop having been improperly stored for a while in a hot environment under a weight load that would force a slow yielding of the plastic.

<<<  And see Alpha here as well next to Epsilon and Zeta.

<<<  We also brought Alpha back to the same rock it rested on in
         Friday's Child to recreate the famous close-up.

If you would like to know the major tells that clearly inform us that this is truly Alpha, follow this link:

We examine one expert's claim in spring of 2007 that our ID of Alpha is in error:

Also examined are yet more Spring of 2008 claims that our ID of Alpha is in error, this time focusing on the mic grill:

Next, evidence first revealed in September 2008 relates the discovery of an ultra-rare type of transistor radio speaker mesh in the found Alpha to other confirmed Wah-built communicators, further solidifying its authenticity:

Here is long-awaited story (first published September '09) of the original owner, who we traced via a Social Security number he carved decades ago into the comm's midplate:

And finally actual proof (a word not used lightly around here) that this found prop is truly authentic (first published November '09):

For fun, below is the banner and a link to the press release announcing the finding of Alpha, first posted on December 22, 2006.

By request, all personal information regarding the owner is firmly withheld and will not be divulged without prior authorization.

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