A Pictorial Guide to the History of the Smartwatch

A PICTORIAL GUIDE TO THE
HIS TORY OF THE
S M A R T WA T C H
The Concept (1930 – 1977)
•
Chester Gould created and wrote a
comic strip about a resourceful
police detective named Dick Tracy.
Tracy made frequent use of a
smartwatch-like device that worked
like a two-way radio or cell phone
with advanced features.
Pop Culture (1960s – 1980s)
•
Smartwatches began invading pop culture with Dick Tracy, but became
even more prevalent in the 1960s with Captain James T. Kirk speaking
into his futuristic wrist watch and later in the 1980s with Michael Knight
calling KITT on his famous black watch.
Pulsar (1972)
• The Pulsar could
store up to 24 digits,
meaning it had a
user-programmable
“memorybank.” The
Pulsar was likely the
first watch to include
such functionality.
Seiko (1978 – 1980s)
• The RC-20 Wrist Computer included an 8-bit Z-80 microprocessor,
8KB of ROM (storage) and 2KB of RAM. It also included a dot-matrix LCD display that was touch-sensitive. Future RC series
models became more and more advanced, like the RC-4000 PC,
which was labeled as the “world’s smallest computer terminal.”
IBM (2000)
• IBM shows off a prototype watch running the Linux operating system
(version 2.2). It included 8MB of memory, an accelerometer, vibration
motor, and a fingerprint sensor. IBM later began to collaborate with
Citizen Watch to create the same device under the name “WatchPad.”
The project was discontinued around 2001-2002. The WatchPad would
have included a 320 x 240 QVGA display, Linux 2.4, Bluetooth, 8MB of
RAM and 16MB of ROM. The estimated MSRP was $399.
The Wrist Rush (2012 – 2013)
• The smartwatch market gains traction and many
companies begin working on wearable tech.
The increasing exposure and press related to
Google Glass fueled other areas of the market.
As of July 2013, a huge list of companies were
rumored – or confirmed – to be working on
smartwatches including Acer, Apple, BlackBerry,
Foxconn/Hon Hai, Google, LG, Microsoft,
Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, HP, HTC,
Huawei, Motorola, Lenovo, Nokia and more.
Pebble & Crowdfunding (2013)
• The Pebble
smartwatch raised
$10.2 million on
Kickstarter, making it
one of the most
successful crowdfunded products ever
released. The Pebble,
launched in July 2013,
was carried by Best
Buy and sold out
within 5 days.
Android Wear (2014)
• Google announces Android Wear, its Android
operating system designed for wearables such as
smartwatches. A significant announcement that
aims to allow smartwatch manufacturers to focus on
hardware design instead of creating a proprietary
software package to execute the watch's "smart"
functionality. The Android operating system, which
is well established across many smart devices,
opens the door for big brands that are familiar with
its interface to enter the smartwatch market.
Apple Watch
• Apple has entered the smartwatch arena and its highly anticipated
Apple Watch will be available in early 2015.
Sources
• http://smartwatches.org/timeline/
• http://www.zdnet.com/before-the-
iwatch-a-history-of-smartwatchesin-pictures-7000014026/#photo