Thread by @PulpLibrarian

In 1975 Seiko launched the 0634: the first digital quartz watch with a chronograph that could measure to a tenth of a second! Between them Seiko and Casio had honed in on the future of watches - digital gadgets!

The US hit back with its own innovation: the digital watch calculator. Pulsar and Hewlett-Packard released models with keypads so small you needed a stylus to operate them. In contrast the 1975 Uranus Calculator watch put its keypad on the bezel!

By 1976 the US had reached peak LCD: over 70 manufacturers were providing digital watches in a wide range of designs - some good, some not so great. But very soon the LCD bubble would burst - and price would be the pin that did it.9

In 1977 Texas Instruments, a recent entry into the market, cut its price for LCD watches to under $10. As a vertically integrated company it could still make a profit - but few of its competitors could. The LCD market began to collapse...

In comparison Seiko had fully automated its watch production, diversified into quartz analogue as well as LCD digital, and continued to innovate with new watch features. In 1979 it bought the now-defunct Pulsar brand. LCD was king.

Throughout the 1980s both Casio and Seiko continued to make LCD watches smarter. In 1980 Casio launched the Game-10 which let you play space invaders, and the C-80 - a calculator watch with a keypad you could actually use!

Then in 1982 Seiko launched the incredible T001 TV watch - a TV on your wrist! James Bond had one of course, but so could you - though you needed a walkman-sized portable receiver to plug it into.

Over the years we've tried to cram everything we could into a digital watch: radios, video games, computers, GPS, health monitors. But if truth be told we probably got it right in 1983...

...with the Casio G-Shock DW-5000C. Designer Kikuo Ibe had been heartbroken when his first digital watch fell and smashed, so he decided to build one that couldn't crack. The rest, as they say, is history.

More stories another time...