The IBM WatchPad was a line of earlier
smartwatch
A smartwatch is a wearable computer in the form of a watch; modern smartwatches provide a local touchscreen interface for daily use, while an associated smartphone app provides management and telemetry, such as long-term biomonitoring. While ea ...
prototypes, produced in 2000-2002.
Overview
In June 2000,
IBM displayed a prototype for a wristwatch that ran
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
. The original version had only 6 hours of battery life, which was later extended to 12. It featured 8
MB of
RAM and ran Linux 2.2.
The device was later upgraded with an
accelerometer
An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is accele ...
, vibrating mechanism, and
fingerprint sensor. IBM began to collaborate with
Citizen Watch Co.
is an electronics company primarily known for its watches and is the core company of a Japanese global corporate group based in Nishitokyo, Tokyo, Japan. In addition to Citizen brand watches, it is the parent of American watch company Bulova, an ...
to create the "WatchPad". The WatchPad 1.5 features a 320 × 240
QVGA monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
touch sensitive display and runs Linux 2.4.
It also features
calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
software,
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
, 8 MB of RAM and 16 MB of
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
.
Citizen was hoping to market the watch to students and businessmen, with a
retail price of around $399.
Models
* IBM WatchPad (2000)
* IBM WatchPad 1.5 (2001)
See also
*
ThinkPad laptops
*
WorkPad handhelds
References
{{IBM personal computers
IBM products
Prototypes