Sir Clive Sinclair

Sir Clive was born in July 1940 in Surrey, England.

The Early Years

After leaving secondary school at 17, he promptly became the editorial assistant for a technical magazine at just 18. Just four years later, he founded his own company: Sinclair Radionics, selling by mail order amplifiers and radios in kit form to reduce costs.

In 1972, Sir Clive launched the 'Executive' - the world's first pocket calculator at a cost of £79, winning numerous awards and earning the company £2.5m in revenue.

Among his first inventions & products were:

• Miniature Radio

• The 'black' watch

• Pocket calculator

• Pocket television

• Digital multimeter

• Amplifiers & more

In 1979 the business was divided and Sir Clive left Radionics and created Sinclair Research with which most of us are now familiar with.

The first major product was the ZX80 personal computer, selling over 100k units. The following year he introduced the ZX81 which went on to sell over 1m units priced at £69,95 each. This cemented
the company's reputation
for innovation and design.

in 1982, Sir Clive gave us the more familiar Sinclair Spectrum or ZX Spectrum, breaking all previous selling records and the subsequent 48k, 48k+, 128k and then the Sinclair QL business computer retailing under the £400 mark.

In June 1983 he was knighted and named 'Computing Person of the Decade'.

Company wind down

During 1986, Sinclair Research Ltd, notably the 'Sinclair' brand was sold to Amstrad and in 1990 to SCI.

In 1992, SRL launched the Zike, an electric bicycle, followed in 1994 by the ZETA - a £144 modification to your bicycle to convert it to electric - like most of his investions, they were no less ahead of their time.

Sir Clive passed away on the 16th September 2021.