HP-01

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Hewlett Packard Digital Watch Model 1 1977

The Hewlett-Packard HP-01 was a digital watch with an integrated pocket calculator .

history

The watch was designed and manufactured by Hewlett-Packard . The HP-01 used a seven segment LED display with a decimal point. It came onto the market in 1977 during the heyday of such LED watches. There were five models in total, two with gold platinum plating and three with stainless steel cases. Prices ranged from $ 450 to $ 550 for the steel-case watches and $ 850 for the gold-plated watches (this is a price equivalent of around $ 2500 to $ 3300 in 2014). In Germany the smallest model cost around 1000 DM. Since the HP-01 was not commercially successful, its production was discontinued after only two years. However, this has led to collector prices of up to 4000 euros being paid nowadays.

HP sold replacement battery packs as accessories. The clock required three button cells to operate . Two cells were used for pure clock operation and one button cell supplied the CPU . This had the advantage that if the procedure was carried out carefully, it was possible to replace the battery without losing the settings. The batteries could be exchanged by the owner himself, which was not a matter of course at the time.

A ballpoint pen was supplied with the watch, which contained a stylus on its back , with which the buttons of the watch could be pressed. Most of the 28 buttons on the HP-01 were sunk into the case and could be pressed with the ballpoint pen stylus or a small special stylus that was housed in the watch's bracelet. However, it was also quite common for users to use any ballpoint pen, which led to the fact that many watches that can be found on the second-hand market today show corresponding marks. Production of the watch was discontinued in 1979.

properties

The uniqueness of the watch is demonstrated not only by the fact that it is the only wristwatch ever made by Hewlett-Packard, but also by some very unusual functions at the time:

  • The watch could do date, time and interval calculations
  • The integrated stopwatch made it possible to multiply by or divide by a constant and it was able to display a constantly updated time while it was running (this was very unusual with LED watches because of the high power consumption). HP called this feature "Dynamic Rate Calculation".
  • It could calculate and display the date and day of the week for any year in the range between 1900 and 2099
  • The HP-01 was the first algebraic (AOS) calculator from Hewlett-Packard. Before the clock appeared, all HP computers were based on UPN logic. Some later HP calculators offered mix modes (UPN and AOS).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HP-01 - The mother of all smartwatches. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .