In honor of the recent release of the Apple watch, I thought I’d take a look back at the electronic stuff I’ve worn on my wrist over the years. I’m embarrassed by most of this now, but I can laugh at myself – so here goes:
Timex LED watch. Mine was black plastic of some sort, not this shiny stuff. I think my parents got one for me so I’d be on time for classes or know when to come home. Pretty nasty looking now, but very common in its day. This one reminds me of Battlestar Galactica – maybe it’s the metal, or the red LED.
The Casio calculator watch. Highly coveted in days gone past. Looks like you can still buy one of these, but I’m not sure why you’d want to. I remember pushing on the little rubber buttons with my fingers, and how sometimes a pencil or eraser was easier to get in there. Was it worth the effort? Did we really need a calculator that handy? No. Still, I’ll bet that you, or someone you know wore one of these.
The Timex Datalink. This early attempt at a PDA allowed you to upload contacts into it via your computer monitor. To upload, you would launch the software and hold the watch up to your screen. The monitor would blink and do weird flashes while the watch attempted to load the data via the little photoreceptor visible at the top. Never had much luck with this thing, and not sure what happened to it. Later on, they came out with USB models, but everyone had cell phones by then.
And last but not least, the Nike FuelBand. I wore one of these as recently as six months ago… Not sure why, but something made me lose interest. Now it’s gathering dust, like the others above.
So… will your wrist sport an Apple watch? Even though it seems like I might be inclined to buy one, I can tell you now I won’t – because history has tempered my enthusiasm for these types of gadgets.