The HP-01 (2009) | Hacker News Reader

The HP-01 (2009)

bytecollector.com

47 pointsscottlocklin12 comments

Obligitary Techmoan link if you want to see a recent-ish video of this watch in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGQrsSEaZkI

I remember seeing the HP-01 in BYTE. Sorry I don't remember which one off hand. But old BYTE magazines are like a trip back in time. The tech was shockingly primitive.

Download old BYTE magazines from here: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Byte_Magazine.htm

Or higher quality scans here: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine

Creative Computing: https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing

BYTE and Creative Computing are what made me fall in love with computing.

I love my HP-01. It is very fun to wear and use. Sometimes it gets comments. Unfortunately I cannot read it without my reading (or progressive) glasses anymore! For that, a Seiko Astron or Citizen works; angles are easier to read without glasses.

Even if the Apple Watch flew to the Moon and back all on its own, it would only be half as cool as this starship commander's watch. Did James T. Kirk wear one of these?

They had wrist communicators in TMP.

I had one of these, of course it's many years lost, just like the stylus appears to be lost from the watch in the article.

This is my dream watch. Absolutely. Too expensive though :(

The internet and eBay have ruined watch collecting... Especially if you're trying to get things on a budget. One article or blog post and it's over...

OR... the Internet and eBay have made watch collecting accessible and broken down a lot of the barriers to entry that used to exist, and were jealously guarded by gatekeepers. Yes, the likelihood is that most collectible watches now cost more, but the prices are probably much closer to a far value for the seller as well as the buyer due to the lessening of the huge information asymmetry that used to exist. Now, the watch you found in grandpa's attic when looking through his estate after he died can be researched and priced accurately using the Internet, and it becomes much harder for unscrupulous dealers to obtain it for peanuts.

> "Oh, these Rolex Milgauss watches with a certificate showing it was presented to your grandpa while he worked at CERN? [0] Yeah, there are loads and loads of them floating about, sorry, they're really common. If it was new, could be worth about five or six thousand pounds [1] but this is old, used and pretty well worn so probably only worth a couple of thousand quid, but I'll take it off your hands for GBP 2500.00 just to be nice, ok?"

0. https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/christies-watches-online-... - Estimate was from 10K to 14K and sold for GBP 17000.00

1. https://www.rolex.com/watches/milgauss/m116400gv-0002.html - Brand new from Rolex is GBP 6300.00

Vintage computing used to be fun because it was cheap. Not too long ago exotic computers were sold for their scrap metal prices.

It is still unbelievable to me to see a cigarette stained 386 selling for $500.

You know, I have one that I found at an estate sale in upstate NY. It was never used. But I just can't bring myself to sell it.

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