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Television Media Toys

Return of the TV Wristwatch 186

Posted by michael from the carpal-tunnel-syndrome dept.
An anonymous reader writes "20 years after the Seiko TV watch, another Asian firm has given it another go. The Globe and Mail in Canada got their hands on the NHJ TV Watch and have posted a review. The writer thinks it's still just way too huge to be a watch but is still impressed."
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Return of the TV Wristwatch More

Return of the TV Wristwatch

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  • I'd prefer the Seiko with the breakout box (Score:5, Interesting)

    by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:04AM (#9334291) Journal
    The Seiko Wristwatch TV wasn't a watch and it wasn't just a "thing" on your wrist. It had a breakout box that carried audio and power that fit on your belt. The actual wrist part of the device was MUCH smaller than this device (at least as it appears in the picture)

    I got one of the Seiko's off eBay as a novelty item not too long ago. I actually would like it if someone did the same with the breakout box also being an iPod like MP3 player. I'd rather have as small a device as possible on my wrist and have it tell time, if I want higher functions - connect the breakout box.

  • Pulp fiction time! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:06AM (#9334315)
    Fabienne: Whose watch is this?
    Butch: It's a TV, baby.
    Fabienne: Whose TV is this?
    Butch: It's Zed's.
    Fabienne: Who's Zed?
    Butch: Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.
  • I haven't used it for a while though. I moved to an area where we don't get cable, so there wasn't really anything to watch.

  • what a great idea! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by conJunk ( 779958 ) *
    it's not like those of us who are actually trying to walk anywhere aren't already constantly dodging distracted pedestrians who's eyes are glued to the adverts on the bus shelters, instead of looking where they're going

    this is the sort of handy contraption that makes daily life for the rest of us that much more exciting!

    • My prediction (Score:3, Funny)

      by TrentL ( 761772 )
      This invention will revolutionize the use of pornography. Think about it.
    • it's not like those of us who are actually trying to walk anywhere aren't already constantly dodging distracted pedestrians who's eyes are glued to the adverts on the bus shelters

      I personally would have no guilty feelings about intentionally walking right over the top of any pedestrian who is trying to walk and watch TV at the same time, but isn't really watching where they are going. My lack of guilt would be similar with regard to those people standing still in the middle of the sidewalk and blocking

  • What is it with these watches.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gorre ( 519164 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:06AM (#9334320) Homepage
    I really don't understand what it is with geeks and these big ugly plastic watches! Personally I just like a very simple analog wristwatch.

    • Re:What is it with these watches.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lukewarmfusion ( 726141 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:13AM (#9334376) Homepage Journal
      It's actually not a watch - it's a wrist-mounted TV unit. Which makes it a bit of a misnomer; as the article states, nobody would wear it on his wrist like he would a watch.

      Offtopic part:
      I used to have a calculator watch in 7th grade. It beeped when you pushed ANY of the buttons, and I couldn't find any way to turn the beeps off. So the teacher wouldn't let me use it on my tests, because it disturbed the rest of the class. So I was taking math tests with no calculator, too many problems to do in my head or on paper, and I was no less geek than when I had it on.

      Now I don't wear a watch at all.
      • i had one of those too, i found you could open the back of the watch (it was just clipped in place, not screwer) and put a piece of paper between the spring and the speaker. no more beeps

        it was handy as we weren't allowed to have/use calculators. a watch just blended in
      • It's actually not a watch - it's a wrist-mounted TV unit. Which makes it a bit of a misnomer; as the article states, nobody would wear it on his wrist like he would a watch.

        What about it makes it not a watch? If you look at the picture in the article, it has the time at the top of the screen. I'm guessing the time is shown even if the TV part is switched off..

  • Pocket Watch... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by thirteenVA ( 759860 )
    Let me know when it's available as a pocket watch..
    • Let me know when it's available as a pocket watch..

      Oddly enough, the writer got sick of wearing it on his wrist "... is more repelling to women than a wet spot on the front of your pants..." and carried around attached to a lanyard in his pocket.

  • Who would want to watch TV on their wrist? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:07AM (#9334329) Homepage Journal
    The Seiko thing is a pretty amazing piece of engineering for the time, IMO. But who would want to sit there staring at their wrist for more then a few seconds. I mean, after a couple minutes wouldn't your arm get tired?

    Why not make some "eyephones", not to be so gibsonesq, but wouldn't a small monitor suspended a few inches from your face make a lot more sense for 'ultraportable' TV?

  • In case anyone wants one... (Score:4, Informative)

    by antiracist ( 753047 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:07AM (#9334330) Homepage
    these have been available for a while now from Dynamism [dynamism.com]. they're cheaper than i would have thought at $219. probably the cheapest item dynamism carries...

  • bah (Score:2, Insightful)

    by abscondment ( 672321 )

    TV on a watch is a waste of time. Shrink down a PDA and give me wireless access and then I'll give you a thought.

  • good grief! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 ( 718736 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:08AM (#9334336)
    If I saw someone wearing that thing, I couldn't help but say:
    • Go Go Power Rangers

    It looks just like their wristband gadgets [powerranger.co.uk]

    • Re:good grief! (Score:2, Funny)

      by guido1 ( 108876 )
      If I saw someone wearing that thing, I couldn't help but say: Go Go Power Rangers It looks just like their wristband gadgets

      Just one question... How do you know that? ;)

    • Re:good grief! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Inda ( 580031 )
      I had one of those big Casio remote control watches.

      I always had a chuckle in other people's houses... They would be flicking through the channels quite happily until I held down one of the buttons on my watch. The signal from the watch would block their remote (that's the way I like to think of it) and they would press the buttons harder and harder until finally giving up.

      I'm guessing I cost my friends enough cash over the years with their constant replacing of batteries. Did they not put two and two tog

  • Cell phones (Score:3, Insightful)

    by awhelan ( 781773 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:09AM (#9334346) Homepage
    Cell phones have become the piece of technology that everyone wants to show their friends now. A lot of people even use them as a replacement for their watches. There may be a market for cell phone TV's, but I can't see anybody buying this.
    • There may be a market for cell phone TV's, but I can't see anybody buying this.

      Many phones can already play divx/mpeg which is preferable as you can pause etc when distracted. The only time you'd be better with a TV tuner was to catch live events, say sport/news etc. Even then though, most phones now have net access, and why would you want to watch a football game on a screen where you can't even see the ball!!

  • I'm not going to be satisfied until I get my flying car [moller.com]. I've given up on the personal jet pack, but I'm not backing down on the flying car.
  • What is their obsession with digital watches?
  • This is about the equivalent of when one of the members of RunDMC (I believe) wore the wall clock around his neck as a wrist watch.

  • The beginning of the end? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Synesthesiatic ( 679680 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:10AM (#9334356) Homepage
    Aside from the woman-repelling aesthetic, I wonder how much longer over-the-air TV will even be available. It seems like it's on the way out, with cell phones slowing creeping into its airspace.

    Without broadcast TV, gadgets like this would be useless, and perhaps replaced by those same next-gen cell phones (with an expensive TV subscription plan of course).

    • Without broadcast TV, gadgets like this would be useless.

      Except that when the time comes, these gadgets will get streaming broadcasts via WiFi.

    • In the UK, we are going to have broadcast TV indefinitely, but they are going to turn off the analog broadcast in about 2008 and have digital only. Digital broadcast - not satellite - is already up and running.

      I would imagind that the same is likely to be true in the US in due course, because there are some places which it will never by appropriate to run cable, and cutting someone off fram access to TV is downright un-American.

      Apart from anything else, what \re you going to wathc in your RV. And will the

  • Making progress (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:10AM (#9334363) Homepage
    Yeah...its still too huge, but its still a helluva lot smaller, and doesn't have a wire that has to go up your sleeve to the battery pack/antenna strapped to your arm. Fact is, there's been a lot of progress and once they've really worked out these flexible OLED displays, we will start to truly see a lot more miniaturization, as the display is the largest part of most of todays electronics.

  • Excellent quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by spellraiser ( 764337 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:11AM (#9334364) Journal

    The writer of the review is quite the humorist. For instance:

    Sacrificing my public image in the name of science, I wore it as a watch for about an hour at the local mall. If you're into female repellant, wearing it this way will give you better results than a wet spot on the front of your pants.

    In light of this, I propose that slashdot's motto be changed to: News for Nerds. Stuff That Repels Females.

    Hmmm ... maybe not. Don't see it catching on, somehow.

  • What they need to do... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by The Ultimate Fartkno ( 756456 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:14AM (#9334398)
    ...is have motion sensors in the watch that will let you wave the display in the air and use persistence of vision to make a bigger virtual display - kind of like they do with those LED wands that show messages in the air. That way if, y'know, your wrist was moving back and forth really rapidly then you could see a much larger image of, well, um... ...Star Trek. That's it. DS-9 all the way! w00!

    • With the rapid back and forth motion necessary to make the image visible, it would probably be better suited to watching pr0n, or at the very least, Voyager instead of DS9..
    • The only thing that can makes geeks look geekier - waving their arms around like crazies to generate the larger image.
      I can see the ads now: Repel women, attract SWAT teams.
    • That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

      All very well to wave your nokia phone around to show a text message, but to watch TV? You could maybe view a commercial before your arm got tired.


      • > That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard.

        That's pretty much what I was thinking as I posted it, but now that I've been modded "interesting" I'm wondering if somebody should actually rig one up and try it.

        Suddenly a stupid wank joke has turned into an experiment requiring millions of dollars in r&d... behold the power of the mod!

        Now watch somebody do it and become a billionaire off my idea. Bastards...

    • Better still, have an oscillating laser to project the image onto a nearby surface.
  • of this thing is pretty high IMHO, it's usefullness is almost zilch. First, when was the last time you watched broadcast TV? In my case, it's been years ago; then again, I rarely watch TV at all. The only good use I can think of for this thing is at sporting events when you want the camera's view. I grow tired of "gadgety" gadgets. I want smaller, lighter and multi-functional---the first thing that comes to mind is something like a Treo 600. A good, clear screen (OLED?) coupled with broadband wireless
  • ...the Japanese can make ir smaller!

  • There is a cultural difference (Score:3, Interesting)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:19AM (#9334447)
    In Asian countries there is a fashionable trend and social acceptance to wearing these newly looking watches.

    Like the Casio G-shocks and other hi-tech watches, they sold like hot cakes in the mid 90s. It wasn't until the year 2000 before they start making an appearance in the U.S. This TV watch will probably be a super trend in Asia for years before people start buying it in U.S.

  • Try MY Television wrist watch (Score:3, Funny)

    by Esion Modnar ( 632431 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:20AM (#9334453)
    It's a 12-inch b/w tv, with lead acid battery, inverter, and little cart with wheels, like the kind used for luggage. And I have some velcro straps to lash the TV to your wrist.

    Um, so you can call it a watch.

  • As with all gadgets... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:23AM (#9334479)
    The usage bottleneck is still the battery... limited to one hour of tv in this instance.

    • I wonder. Has anyone ever thought of putting together a portable generator?
      A small internal combustion motor like those used in RC cars powering a small alternator, add some electronics and presto!: portable power source.
      Might be a bit noisy though.
  • In Berlin, they turned analog VHF/UHF off and switched to digital DVB-T this spring. The rest of good old Germany will follow suit in the next couple of years, which would make this the most expensive display of white noise around :-). A DVB-T wristwatch with a USB port would be very cool though: watch TV while they send that 2gigabyte file to your Notebook...

  • Another product for the same old sports niche (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:24AM (#9334489)
    Wow, a portable video player with a tiny, tiny screen. This one, rather than storing stuff on a HD, limits you to VHF and UHF signals -- so I guess it's in a different niche than the various "iPod killers" we see coming down the pike lately.

    Instead it's the "I want to hear (and kinda squint to watch) the broadcast while I'm at the game" niche. This has the same appeal as an old lug-it-to-the-game TV from 1980ish. The article's right: it's for the "news/sports junkie" and that's about it. Only, of course, news junkies want CNN and sports junkies want ESPN, neither of which'll come in.

    What this article mainly does is impress me with the product Seiko made 20 years ago. The market for the new version isn't any better now -- if anything it's smaller, because people don't think of broadcast signals as the entire universe of TV any more. Eh (shrugs).

  • Phones, maybe. Watches, no way. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Octagon Most ( 522688 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:30AM (#9334520)
    Phones with TV reception are far more likely to receive mass acceptance than these wrist monstrosities. Toshiba and NEC have working models in Japan, check this WSJ review [wsj.com], and SprintPCS is brining MobiTV [mobitv.com] to some of its models in the U.S.

  • Ugly... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jcostantino ( 585892 )
    So it's basically just an ultra-miniature TV with a digital watch tacked on to it. TV doesn't rule my life as much as knowing what time it is.

    I bought a new watch [lanechen2000.com] from Swatch, mechanical, autowinder, sweep second hand, aluminum band, skeleton front and back, 21 jewels, etc... awesome watch for $125.

    I would rather have a nice watch that tells time and lives for more than 1 hour of use. This TV watch (both old and new, actually) seem to be for people with way too much disposable income.

    • "I would rather have a nice watch that tells time and lives for more than 1 hour of use. "

      Yeah, there's lots of products out there that just don't appeal to everybody. Sucks, donnit?

  • Wow, the thing is huge! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Judg3 ( 88435 ) <jeremyNO@SPAMpavleck.com> on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:33AM (#9334545) Homepage Journal
    I used to have a Timex BeepWear Pro, and let me tell you - that thing wore out it's welcome real fast. It was 3 times the thickness of a normal watch, larger overall then a normal watch, and took 3 batteries which lasted about a month. I think I wore it for about 5-6 weeks before finally getting rid of it.
    It just screamed "I'm a geek!" and was way to cumbersome to be useful.
    From the looks of this TV watch, it would be the same way. Neat toy for a few hours/days, then relegated to the drawer of forgotten tech
  • Is anyone working on, say, a SD card with a TV tuner (be it analog or DVB) for a PDA? It probably still would suck the battery dry in no time, but it would be fun while it lasts...

    Alternatively, have a purpose built solution, maybe employing something like the Archos Video Jukebox or the Media Center of MS. What's the status there?

    Is there any advantage to be had by going for DVB? Batterywise, eg? Which size antenna do you need anyway?

    Just fodder for thought (and replies).

    Greetings, g.a.g
  • From the article:

    "For years, my car's been equipped with a portable Casio colour TV for whenever I find myself sitting in the parking lot waiting for someone. A little smaller than a paperback, it fits into the armrest compartment on my VW Golf. Compared to the Buick-like size of my old B/W portable beast, my "armrest TV", is a Mini Cooper."

    Maybe it is just me, but did anyone else read this and think "why are you even carrying a paperback-size TV around... carry a paperback book instead." There is stil

  • jesus this is dumb (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sbma44 ( 694130 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @10:36AM (#9334568)
    Enough with the Dick Tracy fantasies! The idea of a TV watch is asinine. Practical considerations about size aside, there's no point to it. The point of a wristwatch is that it can be looked at immediately at any time. If you feel like checking the time, your wristwatch allows you to do it immediately, anywhere. The operation takes about half a second.

    These attributes do not apply to watching television. Whatever video you watch will probably be of sufficient length that the time wasted fishing a larger, more useful device out of your pocket is negligible. This is why wristphones are stupid, too. If the device's use takes more than a split second and/or it doesn't need to be accessible on an instant whim, there is no reason to put it on your wrist. I'm all for video-enabled cell phones. I see no reason why my portable electronics need to reside somewhere other than my pockets. Hey, why not attach an ipod to a headband? The controls would be SUPER accessible!

    Now can we please forget these stupid wristwatch gadgets and get on with the flying cars?

  • A few years ago, all the geeks with too much income would be all over this.

    Now there's not as many geeks with too much income, and the ones who still have it look at the watch and say, "What, no Tivo?"

    -JDF
  • ...not for my PDA, but for the tivo in my wristwatch TV.

  • Watching porn just got harder. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If the TV moves with my hand, it'll be really difficult to focus
  • "If you're into female repellant, wearing it this way will give you better results than a wet spot on the front of your pants."
  • Wow, it only took 20 years to increase the size and weight of the watch several times over.
  • Gives new meaning to the concept of "geek with a beanie."
  • This is a pretty cool gadget, and given the extra cash, I will probably pick one up when it is available, if for nothing other than the gadget factor.

    I wonder tho, what they will do when the US markets, at least, go from analog tv broadcast to digital broadcast. Since the FCC mandated that TV stations switch from Analog RF to Digital RF, will that affect the usabliltiy in the long run?

    Also, wouldnt it be neat if they could add a small port and start selling it with walkman sized portable DVD players??
  • I agree that from an engineering point of view this is pretty impressive. But I can't stop wondering why anyone would want to buy one of these, aside from the cool, 'look-at-me' factor.

    I already have three TVs in my house. They have way better video and audio and don't suffer from the reception problems that these devices, naturally, suffer from. I have two computer screens at work that I could watch streaming video on (at least, financial networks usually offer streaming TV to business customers). Plus, t

  • LCD screens (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zymano ( 581466 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @11:08AM (#9334880)
    Can't compare to OLED screens. They still use too much power. The light emitter is always on therefore wasted energy. An Fed (field emitting display) is more efficient but is not mass produced by anyone.
  • The included earbuds have a proprietary plug which allows them to double as the antenna

    I guess that's one way to lock in the accessories. I would hope that this thing has an adaptor for regular headphones/earbuds, otherwise breaking/losing these could suck... and you can't replace them with a better pair of standard ones.
  • It has an NTSC tuner. Weren't all stations supposed to go to digital ATSC broadcasts by 2006?

    Still, being able to watch snow year-round might be its own reward, for those of you who live in balmy or tropical climes, at least.
  • The included earbuds have a proprietary plug which allows them to double as the antenna.
    At least there's the chance of getting a good connection there. Standard headphone jacks must be the worst designed interface in all of creation, I have yet to plug a set of headphones into any device and not have to jiggle it around or hold it steady to make sure I get the sound in both ears.


  • I am NOT buying watch TV until it comes with at least 60" plasma screen.
    Period.

  • TiVo? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MellieMel ( 784726 ) on Friday June 04, 2004 @02:10PM (#9337125)
    Why do we need this? Seriously. What do you have to watch that is so time-critical that you MUST see it real-time? The News? What self-respecting geek watches TV news, when there's Google? Sports? Use a radio, check the scores online, or go to a sports bar.

    If there's something on that I want to see, but will be out of the house for, I just TiVo it. If I wanted to be low-tech about it, I could use my trusty VCR to tape it. Either way, I can watch Good Eats when I get home. I see no reason to carry a postage-stamp-sized TV with me. Are y'all that addicted to Jerry Springer?
  • The wrisTV gets 1.25h per charge, and is kinda big (even compared to the screen). If they dropped the UI HW and VHF/UHF receiver, replacing it with WiFi/MPG, maybe they could get more hours with less weight and bulk. Plug the SDIO WiFi card into my Treo 600, and I'm watching 128Kbps movies. In a year or two, as the PCS network goes to 500+Kbps, I'm watching real video.
  • You can pick up a tuner for your GBA sp that will let you watch tv on it, and it still fits in your pocket (if you have big pockets like any respectable geek should). Not sure about battery life but I'll bet it's better than an hour, especially if you have one of those new improved 18 hour batteries from Lik-Sang.
  • Either way, I can't stand wearing even a basic time piece, (which packs enough power to last more than the minimum 24 hours required to do its job).

    More to the point, TV is brainsucking evil, and it already takes a fair bit of work to avoid being exposed to a cathode ray tube these days. Why on earth would I want one strapped to my body like some sort of mind-control wrist manacle reminding me every five minutes to buy shit?

    Still, Saykoh's R&D kids must have had fun coming up with the device. It was
  • tennis elbow and possibly w*k*rs cramp.

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