

HP-01 wrist instrument, 1977 - denzil_correa
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0022/

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denzil_correa
HP-01 was code named "Cricket". I found out some answers but I still don't
quite get what it meant by "all of Cricket's technology". Are they referring
to the insect Cricket? What technology are they talking about?

> From the minutes of a product planning meeting: "A suggestion was made to
> put all of Cricket's technology into an elegant, truly pocket size
> calculator selling for around $250. It would have an LED readout, 10 keys, 2
> ROMS, timing functions and do about '40 things'. The appearance of the
> package would do justice to the selling price. This suggestion prompted an
> immediate lack of enthusiam [sic] and was seconded by no one thus inhibiting
> further serious discussion." This was a suggestion to "save" Cricket (HP-01)
> which was highly controversial. The meeting recap/action item related to
> Cricket was: "Pray for Cricket."

[http://www.hpmuseum.org/collect.htm#codes](http://www.hpmuseum.org/collect.htm#codes)

~~~
dandelany
As the original article mentioned, they spent a lot of resources miniaturizing
the math circuits for the relatively unsuccessful Cricket watch. This is
talking about their idea to "save Cricket" and get some more value out of the
work they put in by transplanting all of the internals of the watch into a
separate pocket calculator product which might be more successful than the
watch.

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stox
They were big, heavy, and needed batteries too often. Expensive, too. They are
retro-chic now, though. A good specimen will cost you north of $1K.

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madengr
Now why would they destroy something to keep others from copying it? That is
plain dumbassery.

~~~
pedalpete
Particularly destroying the workings of an unsuccessful product line, where
others could have learned and progressed the design. But it was the 70's and
sharing of knowledge has changed significantly since then.

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bucky
This is a reminder to me that it doesn't matter how great your idea is, or how
technically impressive your product is. If the execution isn't right (in this
case, who wants to do math awkwardly on their wrist with a tiny, hard to hold
stylus? A calculator is much more comfortable) nobody will buy your product.

~~~
pjmlp
Actually the Casio versions of such watches were quite cool among us back in
the 80's.

~~~
JasonFruit
I loved mine. My uncle gave the best presents! When you're in third grade, at
least, nothing makes you feel cooler than a calculator watch.

~~~
pjmlp
Quite true. I only managed to get one already in high school.

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jcoffland
The HP-01 is the one and only watch I would ever wear. Sure it's big and
clunky but it's so freaking cool, in a nerdy way. The $1k+ price tag is the
only thing that has detered me. This is the ultimate gift for the nerd who has
everything.

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joncp
I wonder if it could do RPN...

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calinet6
This comment may not have much meat to it, but HP was famous for their
excellent graphing calculators, which used RPN input format. They were fun to
program as well and started many a young nerd of the 90's on the path to
making software.

~~~
pjmlp
I used to dream about the HP 48GX, but my budget only allowed for a Casio
FX-880P.

The days when a 32KB upgrade module costed what would be now around 100 euros.

~~~
SamReidHughes
Wow, times change, now you can get a 1MB card for that kind of money!

~~~
calinet6
The calculator market really hasn't scaled in price like the rest of the
general purpose computing world... pretty amazing that the exact same TI-83
and HP48's used ten years ago are still selling for nearly the same prices
they were then.

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alayne
Unfortunately it was algebraic. Another sought after calculator watch is the
Casio scientific watch CFX-400.

The only RPN calculator watch I'm aware of is the uWatch which is out of
production apparently [http://www.calcwatch.com/](http://www.calcwatch.com/).

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98Windows
Looks like the apple watch!

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INTPenis
...and it runs NetBSD.

