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The Seiko TV watch
- jacklizhui 4y agoYou have to admit Back in 1980s this was not only awesome but a must have gadget. Hard to visualise how awesome this before internet era. Completely futuristic. +10000
- jansan 4y agoJust like in 1999 the Casio PRT-1GPJ, the first GPS watch. Quite useless and totally awesome. I had a friend who almost could not sleep until he finally owned this watch. Then he put it into a drawer and never looked at it again.
- jasomill 4y agoTotally awesome, but only mostly useless. The week I got mine, I used it to find my car in a large parking lot. Then I put it in a box and never looked at it again.
- vwadhwani 4y agoYeah, that's nice and all, but the G757-5020 is still the best watch from that movie.
- csdvrx 4y agoSo many cool things were pioneered in the 80s! Why can't we make a better one receiving FTA DTV and showing it on an OLED screen?
- thrdbndndn 4y agoProbably because no one wants it.
- csdvrx 4y agoI'd want one, even if it was black and white.
- romanovcode 4y agoWell, no-one else but you does.
- iancmceachern 4y agoI do too
- UkrainianJew 4y agoBecause while you won't need an external unit for the tuner anymore, you would still need one for the battery.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y agoWhy would it need more battery than any smartwatch?
- ronsor 4y agoDecoding video is a power intensive operation. DTV broadcasts use modern codecs like H.264, H.265, and MPEG-2.
- nl 4y agoThis isn't true. Smartwatches have had full HD h.264 and 720p h.265 hardware decode since at least 2014. https://www.slideshare.net/jjwu6266/qualcomm-snapdragon-400based-android-wear https://www.slideshare.net/jjwu6266/qualcomm-snapdragon-400b...
- UkrainianJew 4y agoThey do, but how many viewing hours do you get from a single battery charge?
- nl 4y ago
- jacquesm 4y agoTechnically: with a built in display, the tuner+decoder part was in the device that you wore in your pocket.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoI've always wanted one of these. Sadly, the LCD has failed in the majority of surviving examples, I believe the liquid part of the liquid crystal "escapes" over time. If you have an Apple Watch there's a new app called "WatchTube" that lets you watch YouTube on your watch, if you'd like to see if such a tiny video viewing experience is actually any good.
- ayewo 4y agoThanks for mentioning it as I hadn’t heard of it before. Here’s the app store link to save others multiple clicks: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/watchtube/id1599884909 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/watchtube/id1599884909
- jrajav 4y agoOne of the more annoying ways that I've seen a website hijack the back button.
- 5F7bGnd6fWJ66xN 4y agoJohnny Seiko and his Giant Robo
- Stratoscope 4y agoTry this exercise: Hold your arm so a watch strapped on top of your wrist would be facing toward your eyes for easy viewing of its display. If you have a smartwatch, or any kind of watch, you do this many times a day. Now hold your arm in that position for 30 or 60 minutes to watch an entire TV show. You can take a break during the commercials. Enjoying that? Probably not. With a [smart]watch, you only glance at it a bit here and there. You don't try to view it continuously. It is interesting to see a very clever product idea that completely ignores human anatomy.
- Nextgrid 4y agoThe use-case of it could be to primarily listen and just glance occasionally, like an augmented radio. News and sports events could fit the bill for example - listen most of the time and take a look for 30 seconds when something interesting/relevant is mentioned.
- Stratoscope 4y agoAh, now that makes sense! I was picturing actually watching a full TV show, but what you describe is very practical.
- infogulch 4y agoMaybe tiktok would have been invented sooner if a majority of people had screens strapped to their wrist.
- martyvis 4y agoOne of the examples was showing a baseball match in progress. I imagine that would appeal to the Japanese "salary-man" where he could be commuting or even working and keeping up with what is happening out on the pitch.
- CodeBeater 4y agoThis is probably the primary use case. Although modified FM radio receivers could easily receive analog TV audio it just would be a harder sell. Also, sometimes companies do things just to show off their capabilities to the market, especially Japanese companies. Sony were the kings of this tactics back in the day. As a side note, in the typical western FM band allocation (88 - 108MHz), the analog TV audio carrier for channel 6 would be located just under that (at 87.7MHz), and since most radio receivers could go a little under and over that range, most people could listen to channel 6 audio on the go. This generated an entire market of "TV" stations who's main purpose was to broadcast audio, in the United States they were nicknamed "Franken-FMs".
- agrippanux 4y agoObligatory “but can it run Linux” post
- LegitShady 4y agowhen I was in high school I had a casio watch that doubled as a TV remote control that was responsible for a lot of random power off/change channel messages to the TVs at school... not as cool as an actual tv watch but was fun.
- spacemanmatt 4y agowe had lots of laughs with HP-48 IR ports
- shahbaby 4y agoI went from a fitback back to a simple casio gshock and it was one of the better decisions I made this year. Now I don't need to worry about charging my watch every week nor do I have to think about finicky software. The best tools are the ones that do their job so well you rarely have to think about them.
- luke2m 4y agoCasio's solar models are even better -- you don't need even the once every few year battery change.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoMy $5 Casio has a "10 year battery"
- skhr0680 4y agonormal battery G-shocks are rated to last 2-3 years
- TremendousJudge 4y agoYeah mine too. I've had it since 2009 and only now the screen is starting to go a bit dim. I'm really amazed every time I think about it.
- washadjeffmad 4y agoFew is an understatement. My solar atomic g shock hasn't needed a battery replacement in the 15 years I've owned it. They're rated for 10-15 years though, so I guess I'll see how it's holding up in another six months.
- ragazzina 4y agoI would really like to own a GShock, but I just can't get over how small the digits are. I know I would be frustrated reading the time from a space that is maybe 1/15 of the watch face surface area.
- gwbas1c 4y agoI don't get it. If I still have to carry around a walkman-like thing, why bother with the watch? Why not put the screen on the walkman-like thing, and eliminate the wire through my sleeve?
- interestica 4y agoWith the power of the iphone's main chip, Apple could come out with more auxiliary devices. An AR headset that utilizes your iphone for all the processing. It's kind of how carplay/Android auto works.
- kwatsonafter 4y agoI think this is sound design consideration in action-- we all have, "supercomputers" in our proverbial wallets-- assuming that conspicuous consumption is likely to continue-- what, "add-ons" could you incorporate into future, "phones?" We too easily get lost in, "but actually conspicuous consumption is kind of killing the planet" land as designers and consumer electronics has been sorely impacted as a result. How ironic it may be when a lack of technological and economic growth fueled by climate concerns ends up bankrupting the economy for renewables and permaculture. I'd trade 5 Apple watches for a functional Japanese watch-TV from the 80s. Perhaps I should listen to myself speak sometimes.
- masswerk 4y agoBecause this is what other electronics manufacturers like Sony, Panasonic and Sinclair already did. On the other hand, there was this long lasting dream of television on the wrist (compare Dick Tracy and its audiences now having grown up to become potent consumers) and Seiko was a watch manufacturer. This long lasting dream is also why we have now smart watches, but still no wrist TV. :-) BTW, the usefulness of these tiny pocket TVs of the early 1980s was quite heavily contested. The Seiko interpretation of the theme had some going for it regarding the the show-off factor, which isn't to be discounted for when it comes to (expensive) novelty items.
- eddieroger 4y agoFor the flex, as they say. Because Seiko figured out how to make a small, wrist-bound TV. It could only hold the screen (not speakers, or a headphone barrel, or even the antenna assembly), so that's what they put on the wrist and moved the rest away. Also, there's an aspect of 80s opulence at play with this. So they did it because they could using the best of what they had at the time.
- pcurve 4y agoresolution was very decent at 32k pixels.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- billybuckwheat 4y agoThought this was kind of neat when I first saw it, but I wanted a Sony Watchman more. Never got one, though. I'm still bitter about Santa not bringing me on that Christmas ...
- rob74 4y ago"UKW" radio is the German term for FM radio (which is broadcast over "ultrashort" or very high frequency / VHF waves, "Ultrakurzwelle", thus UKW). I wonder where that came from in the article? Also, I wonder where you could still use this thing after you paid ~500 $ for it. Are there any analog NTSC channels still broadcast over the air anywhere in the world?
- el-salvador 4y ago> Are there any analog NTSC channels still broadcast over the air anywhere in the world? Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and parts of Costa Rica are still using analog SD NTSC. In El Salvador the delay was caused due to first proposing ATSC on the mid 2000s and then switching to ISDB in the mid 2010s for what I believe were 'political reasons'. The first batch of TV sets sold were NTSC+ATSC. And only the newer ones are NTSC+ISDB. OTA digital TV has never been used by more than a couple of channels or for test transmissions. I think we've leap frogged this technology though. There's still no analog shutdown date and HD content from the local TV stations is usually available in YouTube or Facebook live.
- guidoism 4y agoI remember this fondly from Beyond 2000, the best show of the late 1980s.
- iancmceachern 4y agoYes! Indeed the best show, and then after 2000 it became beyond tomorrow
- racecar789 4y agoPretty impressive feat for 1984.
- awsrocks 4y ago
- wodenokoto 4y agoWhat is 100k 1983 yen in todays equivalent? An Apple Watch sits at ~50k yen today.
- justsomehnguy 4y ago1983 ¥100k => 2022 ¥126824 => 2022 $938
- skhr0680 4y agoThe average wage in Japan is roughly twice as much as then, so about 200k in today's money
- samatman 4y agoNot a bad Fermi estimate, but even in Japan they're paying more for housing and health care than they did in the 80s, I'd call it 150k. A sibling comment of yours did what's presumably a straight CPI conversion to ~130K, so this is kind of cheating, but napkin math is a good habit to keep fresh.
- JetAlone 4y agoWell, hell, if the NHK man is going to squeeze that fee out of me, I might as well have 24/7 access to the station I'm paying for... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK_Party
- haunter 4y ago>Octopussy Ok I’m not very versed about Bond movies but wtf. Not even trying to be subtle about being sexist.
- cwillu 4y ago“men always come first, women come second.” --You Only Live Twice (1967) It's never been subtle.
- suction 4y agoJames Bond has always been a phantasy for chavvy working class men. James Bond is basically a chav who solves his problems with violence, likes women and booze, but at the same time can cosplay being a suave, classy guy who rich people will have to respect. Basically fairy tales construction workers use as daydream fodder to distract them from their menial jobs. Also if you go to vacation hotspots in Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, etc.) you'll find these types of brute, tattooed English chavs dressing in whatever brands James Bond wore in the last movie, while getting drunk in the midday heat and yelling obscenities at their mates across the outdoor cafeteria.
- suction 4y agoThis feels like discovering a time capsule which holds the early signs of why Japanese women aren't interested in Japanese men anymore.
- trentearl 4y agoI'm not sure I understand. They arent? Why?
- kalleboo 4y agoThe statistics actually show the opposite - Japanese women are still interested in men, it's the men who aren't interested in women
- samatman 4y agoIf we're going to do a one sentence summary here, it's "Japanese men don't enter the dating world without a job, and if they don't get that after college it won't ever happen".
- suction 4y agoThat's only one of the subcultures who can't get a date. I was rather talking about who do have a steady job, i.e. are "Salariman", but in nerdy careers, i.e. tech, accounting, back office, etc. and have given up, or never tried, to be physically attractive to potential mates. The types who have lots of disposable income and would roam the streets of Akihabara to buy manga and go to maid cafés, or drop by Yodobashi to get a Seiko TV watch. That's not a small subculture in Japan, and Japanese women are absolutely repulsed by them.
- suction 4y agoTrue, but it's important to understand what type of men Japanese women are still interested in. The number of Japanese men who'd wear a Seiko TV watch (or show whatever modern day equivalent signifier of inceldom) has grown significantly bigger than the number of Japanese men who display the traits that Japanese women would like to see in a partner.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- type0 4y agoSeiko used to be groundbreaking for its time, one such example is Seiko UC-2000 that could run BASIC and connect to keyboard and thermal printer module.
- filmgirlcw 4y agoMy dad was a huge fan of Sony’s Watchman series of portable TVs. He had 2 or 3 different models. In the 1990s, I would steal them when I’d go on school trips in elementary school so I wouldn’t miss my TV shows. The limitation of antenna stuff made it less than ideal in a moving vehicle, but being able to watch Melrose Place on a bus in third grade instead of Homeward Bound or The Sandlot was pretty dope. Which is all to say, very young filmgirl would have loved this shit.
- gwbas1c 4y agoI remember my watchman worked very well in a car. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything good on when I brought it into a car.
- filmgirlcw 4y agoYah, in a general area I think it would be fine. The TV in my grandfather’s van in the early 1990s was great from what little I remember of it. More of an issue when you’re crossing state lines on a 6 or 8 hour bus trip
- rexreed 4y agoWhat no one could forsee is how many different devices and gadgets the smart phone would subsume: * Camera & Video recorder * Calculator * GPS * Video streaming device (aka "TV") * Game device * Email and communication device * Radio * and so so so much more Each one of these devices in the 1960s-1990s (even early 2000s) were multi-billion dollar industries in their own right.
- drdeadringer 4y agoWith today's technology, how might this translate into a functioning 1980s Dick Tracy Watch -- the upgraded version from the original "radio watch" which includes video communication as well. "But that's just Facetime on your phone but on your wrist." "What's wrong with current smart watches?" You still need a smartphone on or near your person. Maybe sometimes I want to be available for contact without the rest of the dizzle-dazzle in a retrofuturistic manner [flip phones aside].
- scarface74 4y agoApple has had a cellular version for four (?) years. Adding a camera would be theoretical possible. But I can’t imagine it being that useful.
- elzbardico 4y agoFunnily enough, at this time, "portable TVs" were bulky contraptions with mini CRT displays. They could have a very popular consumer product if they had expanded this LCD to bigger dimensions (maybe, the size of a walkman, a very popular product at this time) and created a truly portable TV.
- loquor 4y agoI remember watching this cartoon called Kochikame as a kid. One episode features a this guy who carries around a portable TV, watching all his TV shows as he goes around. That blew my mind. Such a thing clearly couldn't exist, I thought back then, but just thinking about it made me giddy with excitement. Fast forward 13 years, and I carry such a device with me at all times. Its the stuff of fiction come materialized. Stories like this remind me to stay grateful for the amazing progress that has happened that sometimes goes unrecognized by us.
- bestham 4y agoI can clearly remember reading about this watch in one of the "innovations of the 1900s"-books in the early 90s at my schools library. It was featured as the pinnacle of human technology and it sparked great imagination in the mind of me as a child when I read about it.
- main3523 4y ago