Seiko TV Watch is now 20 years Old

TheGreatOrangePeel writes "In 1982 the Seiko "Television Watch" became available to buy. Now, 20 years later, the watch has become a bit of a rare item to find. When it was available new, it contained the following: 1-1/4" LCD Screen on wristwatch, Shirt pocket receiver, Case, Earphones, Owner's Manual." Apparently the small wonder is still the smallest TV commercially produced.

Comments

Casio remote watch

[Calimus]

Now the real questions is, will the remote watch work with the the Tv watch?

The watch was fine ...

[Anonymous Coward]

It was the giant dish you had to wear on your head that was a bother.

How can I masturbate with this thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well fuck, I can't masturbate to erotic TV commercials if the TV is mounted on my friggen wrist... it keeps moving back and forth, back and forth...

Masturbation requires concentration, which this device does not allow.

You can buy one

[Jim Buzbee]

here

They can't build them again (economically)

[Anonymous Coward]

My organization is known for studying the viability of certain technology products, including televisions.

We've found that the next place a TV makes sense is within cell phones. With phones getting high quality displays, it's relatively inexpensive (power/space/$) to add a television tuner.

We found smaller devices were not economical, due to the fact that most people already carry around a cell phone as a device.

We've also found that cell phones are displacing the sales of watches, as most modern cell phones have a server-synchronized clock built in.

Over time, we find that the cell phone will shrink into a watch-sized device - but that will take at lesat two more generations of development. Battery life and size is, as always, the limitation.

Re:They can't build them again (economically)

[cmowire]

You've got me on the watches being replaced by cell phones. I'll buy that one. But I won't buy the watch-sized cell phone. Unless the phone is somehow implanted, anything smaller than an existing phone isn't going to be convenient for people to talk into or dial out of.

I would believe half of the cell phone on the wrist and the other half of the cell phone in a headset. But I think the next step is to combine the cell phone and the PDA.

Re:They can't build them again (economically)

[Reality Master 101]

We've also found that cell phones are displacing the sales of watches, as most modern cell phones have a server-synchronized clock built in.

I stopped wearing a wristwatch a long time ago for just this reason. What's also interesting that I never though of before is that we went from pocket watches -> wrist watches -> and now back to pocket watches!

sounds cool until..

[Xzzy]

..you read the article and realize the thing had a walkman-sized reciever you gotta carry around too (source site was hosed, that's a mirrored copy).

Seems to me one of the other portable TV's would be a lot more convenient, especially considering the improved screen size. Which you know, is probably a real darn good reason why it never cought on. ;)

Still, having a resolvable display in the early 80's was doing pretty darn good, even if it ended up being little more than a neat hardware hack.

Re:wow.

[Sc00ter]

That would be wrong

http://www.snopes2.com/science/greatwal.htm

"If we take "space" to mean a low Earth orbit such as the one travelled by the Space Shuttle (roughly 160 to 350 miles above Earth), the Great Wall claim fails twice. First of all, it's not the only object visible from that distance: NASA's Earth from Space photographic archive (particularly the Human Interactions section) shows that pictures taken from low orbit reveal human-built structures such as highways, airports, bridges, dams, and components of the Kennedy Space Center. Secondly, even though other objects are visible at this distance, according to Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt, the Great Wall is barely discernable, if not invisible"

You need a small transmitter for a small watch.

[User 956]

Combine this with the world's smallest TV transmitter, and you're all set.

I Sold Them!

[Anonymous Coward]

I was a salesman at Bel Air Camera in Los Angeles
in 1982 and I remember selling these silly things.

Actually I remember selling ONE. It was bought by
David Hearst... Patty's brother. He wandered
around Westwood looking at the stupid thing and
bumping into people.

Computer Watch

[BoxJockey]

This reminded me of a watch I had long ago...It was a PDA/Organizer Computer Watch. It actually had a version of GW Basic in the rom, and 256k of RAM, I believe. Here's a british version on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =941378559