The origin of 'wearable computer' was in Japan in the 1980's

Smart Watches such as Apple Watch and Android Wear are also called wearable computers and are just "computers that can be worn on the wrist". The wearable computer which started spreading from the mid-2010s tend to be thought that overseas manufacturers such as Korea and the United States are the origin, Inexhibit which is a media related to art and design, the beginning of its history was Sharp in the 1980s , Epson, Seiko and other Japanese electronic device manufacturers can be traced back to the device.

SEIKO UC-2000 (1984) - the dawn of wearable computers | Inexhibit
https://www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/seiko-uc-2000-1984-the-dawn-of-wearable-computers/

The UC - 2000 released by Seiko in 1984 is a device that seems to have embodied the "wrist computer" exactly. The UC - 2000 with a 50 x 28 pixel monochrome liquid crystal display has four buttons, and in addition to functions such as mode switching, it can also be used as a controller for playing games.

Just like Apple Watch pairing with an iPhone, UC - 2000 also has a device that can be called a "parent machine". That is this UC - 2200 dock station . In addition to the keyboard, the huge main body is equipped with "thermal transfer printer" and "ROM slot" which makes the era feel. I also feel the era where RAM capacity is 4 KB and ROM capacity is 26 KB. It is possible to program with Microsoft BASIC , it was possible to use English-Japanese dictionary and to play with games.

You can see UC - 2000 and UC - 2200 dock station, and the state of actually using the dedicated small keyboard from about 1 minute 30 seconds of the following movie.

The first wristwatch computer - YouTube


At that time, Seiko and Epson continued to improve and release this device, and some models exist that can be connected with computers such as Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM machine, etc. via the RS - 232 interface He said that. The RC - 20 released by Epson on sale in 1985 seems to have installed a touch screen.

There are also materials that are seen as advertisements and catalogs of UC-2000 "Armor" at the time. It seems that UC - 2000 was called "list part", UC - 2200 dock station was called "controller".

Although it is a mistake to compare with Apple Watch etc. in the first place, on a screen of 50 × 28 pixels, it was possible to use "notepad", "game", "dictionary" etc as well as watch.

According to this document, the CPU seems to be 4 bits.

The main board of "List section". The operating clock of the 4-bit CPU was 32 kHz, 2 KB of RAM and 7.5 KB of ROM were loaded.

In the following blog, it is possible to disassemble the UC - 2000 and see the details of the inside. It is a splendid word that the precisely built-in parts such as the antenna that seems to have been used for communication with the "controller" and the parts like the antenna wrapped with copper wires are a splendid word.

SIGMA 957 Projects: UC-2000 Dissection
http://www.sigma957.org/dissect.html

UC-2000 seems to have been sold overseas, advertisement in Canada is also left.

Because it was a near future device, UC - 2000 also appeared in American movies. In the action film " Black Rider " of 1986, it is shown that Tommy Lee Jones of young days wearing UC - 2000 on his right arm.

Epson's release of the RC-20 in 1985 has a touch screen, which makes the appearance even more refined.

Over 30 years have passed, wearable computers have made great progress.

I tried to make and receive phone calls with "Apple Watch Series 3" which enabled LTE communication - GIGAZINE

In addition, there are devices that realized "reproduction of images", one of the functions of Android Wear, in the 1980s. TV WATCH released by Seiko in 1982 is a device that falls within the category of "watch" rather than a computer, but was able to see the television by connecting a tuner of another unit.

The whole system diagram looks something like this. I connect a "receiver" as large as a portable player, and it is supposed to watch TV while listening to the sound with headphones.

TV WATCH has also appeared in the movie. In the movie " 007 Octopathy " in 1983, the appearance of James Bond acting Roger Moore acting on TV WATCH upgraded to color liquid crystal by the character " Q " belonging to MI 6 is contained.

Japanese electronic equipment makers in the 1980s were focusing on "miniaturization" which can be said as a specialty. It was also around this time that the word "Pocket Computer (Pocket Computer)" was born, and it was an era when so many models such as Sharp PC-1500A were grouped .

In addition, Epson's HC-20 is a model that is classified as a "handheld computer", and it is a model that can also be called a de facto "founder of a notebook PC".

A wearable device that can be said to be a "miniaturization" that is an industrial design has developed into a device used by people all over the world 30 years later. Inexhibit says, "If the technology of liquid crystal displays and ROM devices had evolved a little more in the 1980's, the world's largest computer manufacturer might have been a Japanese manufacturer rather than an Apple," instead of Apple I treat the persimmon to "Think different." Illustrations like the one I saw somewhere below have been released.