Ruputer Turns 10
It’s a watch. It’s a Computer. No - it’s a RUPUTER.
RuPuter is a 16-bit 3.6 MHz watch with 128K of Ram. It has a 102×64 pixel monochrome LCD. It also contained a joystick for gaming, and 6 buttons for functionality. It could connect via serial interface or Infra Red to communicate with other devices, like another Ruputer or Windows 95.
It really was a marvel of the time - 1998 to be exact. It contained W-PS-DOS version 1.16, and had an icon filled GUI. It also had an expansion option of another 128K.
There were some competitors to this like the Fossil Wrist PDA. It had a slightly bigger screen , connected via USB and ran Palm III software. The batteries didn’t last long, but the watch was still impressive.
Still, this is about the Ruputer - for on April 9th, 2008, the Ruputer turns 10. It was concidered the first PC-In-A-Watch, and was developed by Seiko. The debut price of the Ruputer was $285.
The Ruputer was later changed to “OnHand PC”. This wrist-PC had more power to it, and a docking station. You can still get OnHand PC programs from dedicated users. The PDA watch works well with Windows Computers, although we’re not sure about Vista…
Sometimes old tech can be just as cool as new tech…
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April 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
yes i have to say thats pretty good for that time the good old retro stuff :p
October 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am
A few notes here…the Ruputer was never “changed” to OnHand PC. The Ruputer was marketed by Matsucom in the US as OnHand PC. The Ruputer also came in 3 different memory models. 128K, 2mb and the Pro at 4mb. There was also a Skeleton version of the 4mb model that was sold. the original cost of the Ruputer was 39,000 JPY and 47,000 JPY for the 2mb. When the 4mb version came out 10 months later, the 2mb version was generally reduced to 42,000 JPY while the newer 4mb version was 49,000 JPY.
Matsucom waited nearly two years before finally getting the On-Hand branded Ruputer to market and by this time, the fad had died out in Japan. Today, they can be purchased for anywhere between 1,000 yen and 12,000 yen in the auctions.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:02 am
P.S. The original sale date of the Ruputer was 14 February 1997. I ran out as soon as they were available and bought one that evening and their were no lines for it like there were the iPhone.