I worked for Timex as an engineer at their headquarters in Middlebury, CT from 2012 - 2019. I still live only a few miles away and have some contacts on the inside that I talk to occasionally. There is a huge stock of new and old watches at the building. Several times I went spelunking into them and it was fascinating to hear stories about their construction. One time this watch popped up and I had a few hour conversation with one of the guys who knew the engineering secrets of it. If there are any oddball watches that you want to get your hands on for a video, I might be able to pull a few strings. Of course, they probably won't be new in package. Anyhow, great video. I always jump on videos in my feed when Timex comes up.
Oooh be nice if you could find the SDK kit they had for it. You could contact Timex and get a kit on how to make apps for your "enterprise" company, but never could convince them I was one:P
I too owned this piece of oddware back in the mid-ninties in the UK. Memories resurfacing syncing this and having to close the curtains to reduce the glare off the monitor 🤪
I didn't have this. But i did have an indiglo watch, and i still have it. It's sort of like a 'good luck' charm in a way. I first found it on the ground in this parking lot, must have fallen out of someone's car. And i had it for years, always accurate too for a cheap timex. It accidentally went through the washer and dryer a few times, didn't phase it at all. I lost it a couple times outside. The strap broke so i carried it in my pocket, this was before cell phones. Anyway i dropped it on the side of the road one day walking home. Thought it was gone, and it just so happened that my brother was walking by one day and heard a beep. Came home like check out this watch i found! So because of the abuse and always being found, and usually my luck is crap. I keep it in a trinket box of random sentimental value items. I carried that thing around through a lot.
I had one as well. I feel like I had to sync it at a friend's house because they had Windows XP and I had Windows 3.1, but here in the video Windows 3.1 is working fine. I have no idea why I had one. I was definitely in elementary school and didn't have a lot of meetings or appointments.
Well, I didn't know this was even that prevalent, seemingly at least somewhat useful, and Timex. I thought it was something odder, useless novelty of never-heard brand. What I'm meaning, I had never owned, known anyone to own, nor familiarized on these, but indirect fond memories came up - I remember reading a review of one on some computer magazine in 90s. I specifically remember there was, in the text, mentioned the "flashing lines on monitor" when transmiting data, even though there were no pictures of such in the article. Interesting to see this now, and what I really love in this product is the good UI design on the software - SO lost art nowadays.
This was a delight to see again. I had one of these watches in middle/high school and loved it. I was the resident nerd, and even though it didn't necessarily gain me any popularity points, people still thought it was awesome. I later also got one of the Royal FL95 organizers, something I really didn't need, but thought the tech was so cool that I had to get one. Good times.
the indiglo lighting was a genuine delight though, I very clearly remember how terrible watch lights were previous to this innovation. you could really only see the corner of the screen where the light was.
@@LGR Probably your Indiglo is dim due to the phosphors going bad; They work the same way EL wire works. Both have a limited lifespan. Also, I had an organizer that used this type of data transfer. Can't for the life of me remember who made it... Casio maybe?
It may have just been my (private, college-prep) middle school, but everyone had to have a Timex Ironman Indiglo in 1995-1996 when I was in sixth grade. It got to the point where they had to make an announcement at assemblies to turn the beep off, or the whole commons area would just become a crowd of chirping watches for a good 90 seconds (since watches didn't automatically sync to any sort of time signal).
When I was in high school I found one of these randomly on the ground in a parking lot. I could never figure out how to make it work and it wasn't until much later that I figured out you needed software to make it work with the computer..... yea the 90s was a simpler time 😃
Started to comment the exact same thing and saw yours! Seeing this now in 2022, what would I have even done with this as a kid?! Maybe store my Grandma's contact info?
I had one of these. It was an Ironman and I loved it. It had all of my phone numbers and birthday reminders. Near the end of it's life I didn't have a computer with a CRT. Kind of heart broken I got in contact with Timex to see if there was anything that could be done. To my delight, the send me updated software that fixes the refresh rate difference so it would update from my laptop screen. I was beyond happy and got another year or two before the watch finally died.
With LCDs it's not that the refresh rate is too low. It's the fact that the watch relies on the raster itself, just like the Nintendo light gun. Basically when the CRT is scanned, pretty much only a single point is lit at a time. The software just displays static lines spaced appropriately and the CRT does the rest. After a few refreshes the lines are moved to another spot.
The NES Zapper _doesn't_ rely on the raster though,* at least not in Duck Hunt. What kills it on a modern TV is display lag. The TV takes too long to process the signal before displaying it, and old NES games have no provision for dealing with that lag. Basically, when you pull the trigger, the screen goes black for 1 frame, then a white box appears for 1 frame where the first target is, then another box for 1 frame at the 2nd target, and so on. Then the screen goes black for one more frame before showing the game again. Display lag throws off this timing; the sensor in the gun sees the light at the wrong time, so the game thinks you missed. EDIT: The 8-Bit Guy did a video about this process in 2016 -- ua-cam.com/video/Nu-Hoj4EIjU/v-deo.html :/EDIT I suppose a homebrew game could deal with this by adding a calibration screen at the beginning of the game. Hold the trigger at it, and the game puts out light and dark flashes of differing length, then times how much lag there is in the gun sensor seeing the same pattern. * though there were light guns on _other_ systems that _do_ rely on seeing what scan line is being drawn
Exactly. A set of lines on a crt becomes a blinking pattern over time just by virtue of being displayed, since the electron beam sweeps line by line. No LCD does so this will never work on an LCD.
@@AaronOfMpls it's not just display lag, otherwise it should technically work on a modern gaming monitor, but it doesn't. the sensor in the gun sees only IR, which led monitors and tv's do not emit. on some high refresh rate plasma tv's it works if you stand close enough
I love how such basic functions such as auto clock sync was considered a huge selling point back in the day. Now smartphone manufacturers are running out of reasons to buy the latest iPhone or galaxy
No they aren't. Most "smart" phones are designed to self-destruct after a few years one way or another, like incandescent light bulbs. Just put 5 cameras on the back and charge a grand for good measure. Makes me think of the early experimental planes with like 5 wings on them. "Smart" - LOL.
it folds. it has no edge on the fone. it have alot of cameras on it. it has 1 more cam than the last one. its slightly bigger. it will do the same thing as a 100$ phone!
Yeah, I should have clarified. The gimmicks are to distinguish them and the walled garden ecosystems to try and lock people in (among other things), but they insure that you will need to get new phones every so often one way or another. As a last resort they even change cellular service connectivity eventually, like 2G and 3G going away in the US.
@@hermitgreenn actually it's an extremely useful one when my alarm clock runs out of batteries and by the magic of radio waves somehow it gets its time (RDS I'm guessing)
Clint thanks for continuing to make Oddware happen. I know I have some nostalgia for this era, but I think Oddware is interesting for more than that: I have so much respect for engineers and designers of that era. They could see the future, it was right within their grasp, and they had the resourcefulness to use what little tech was available to create something that works. As an engineer and tinkerer these days, we have it easy.
Oh also my sprinkler system is connected to wifi. In order to configure the SSID and passcode to it, I had to run their app on my phone and hold the phone up to the sprinkler controllers optical sensor. The app then modulated the phone screens brightness in rapid succession to transmit the wifi connection info over. Almost the same concept, but in the modern day!
There are still watches today that work similarly! The new Longines VHP can sync the time and time zones with a smartphone app, despite not having bluetooth. The app flashes the flashlight of your phone and the watch has an optical sensor of some kind behind the dial.
Electroluminescent backlights don't put out a ton of light but in my experience they're great for low light levels where you can't read the display otherwise. Particularly if it's the type of display where the light shines through the "white" parts of the display (in the early 2000s it became common for the light to shine through the "black" parts of the display - which meant it was legible in light environments, legible (but inverted) in dark environments, but in low-light environments, you could get into this weird territory where the backlight shining through the "black" parts of the display was too close to the level of ambient light reflecting off the "white" parts of the display, rendering the whole thing illegible...)
It was WILD in 1993 though, haha. I was so proud of my cheapo Indiglo as a kid, rapidly running down the battery by constantly lighting up my watch in the backseat on an overnight road trip.
@@LGR Youre not kidding, I remember my buddy showing up in class with one, I was so jealous lol Compared to the normal side-lit watches of the day, Indiglo was amazing in comparison. Love the NIN shirt too, btw!
@@LGR Ah the joys of growing up in the 90s. I had a few indiglo watches back then as a kid and as girly as mine were, even the boys were jealous. Quite a silly typically kid thing to be overly proud about. I wanted and even saved up for a Timex Datalink watch, but never managed to find one before I grew out of my 486, then forgot that they existed.
Thanks so much for this blast from the past, Clint! I just replaced the battery in the luxury version of this - stainless steel/gold band with an actual glass crystal face. Would love to get it working like it did 20 years ago with calendar and alarm data loaded on it. Awesome video as usual.
They are even more powerful, I had Timex Expedition with datalink years ago. You could write your own code for them, they had around 2KB of RAM and Timex provided header files.
Your mention of data being transmitted/stored visually reminded me of Williams tubes (aka CRTs being used as RAM). Very cool concept, actually generated visible patterns on the CRT to store the data
I also had one of the watches. Don't remember how I got it. I was in high school at the time. I remember I was having difficulty remembering some of the periodic table of elements for a test coming up in science... I put in the information I needed into the watch and just covertly accessed it during the test. Teachers didn't even know about this watch back then. So it just appeared like I was looking at the time. Not my proudest moment, but I never got caught either lol
Did the computer display look the same at home as it does in this video? I'm wondering if it had multiple thin lines like we see here or if it was something different that his camera just didn't pick up completely. The reason I'm curious is, knowing that would help me understand how the sensor worked.
I had a data link too. Got it from Kmart as well. Really liked it. Still have it in some random drawer. They also made a separate transmitter for the watch if you didn't have a CRT.
I still wear one of these! By now its a hybrid of guts, case and band from various models. It has the loudest alarm of any watch I know. Thanks for the vid!
We are eventually going to reach the peak LGR oddware item. If this somehow also synced with an Arcade cabinet and also had those old school calculator buttons, I think that would do it.
@@melskunk The LGR Woodgrain DOS remote-controlling mouse Timex-smartwatch that syncs with a CRT from 1994 =) EDIT: I realize that probably should have a comma or two in it somewhere to be more legible, but I'll leave it as it is for... fun?
Love your channel and your content. I was born 1965. Had all type of video game consoles , pc’s , audio, video…..etc. I’m a geek just like you and your subscribers. That being said….the passion and excitement you show when opening OEM! You are the king of geeks and nerds! Keep up the good work!
I remember back in the day, as a kid, exploring all menus of MS Office and finding this sync feature in Schedule+ or some early Outlook versions. I even triggered those flashing barcodes without anything to receive them. It's nice to finally see this in action properly, some 25 years later ;)
I loved this watch! It's probably my favorite smartwatch I have ever used. I was already a big fan of Timex Ironman watches so a "smart" version for a techy person like me was a instant buy. I wore it for many years and bought a couple versions until it became too much of a hassle to update using the old software.
Not gunna lie, that's actually pretty cool that he's kept using it, does he still keep an old PC around for the sync or does he have the software on a more modern system?
Oh man I remember the eBrain! I thought that would be too darn obscure for a video like this, but I didn't realize that the technology behind it was so special! Appreciate the mention and thanks for reminding me of a small part of my childhood!
If I’m remembering correctly, the sounds were created by a pizo transducer which was mounted on the back cover. I think I had to adjust a contact from the circuit board to make a better connection after changing the battery the 2nd or 3rd time when the sounds stopped.
On the USB model the piezo transducer is mounted to the metal back-plate of the watch - so if you changed the battery but rotated the back-plate before reinstalling it, you wouldn't get sound any more...
@@LGR There was a small hole inside the case with a little spring that went from the circuit board to the backplate. It probably fell out when you changed the battery. It's weird the things you remember!
The thing that’s most nostalgic for me is the advertising insert with tagline- “the watch with the biggest ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me’ factor ever recorded”. That is absolutely pure vintage 90s marketing. Reminds me of boating magazines with images of some Hunter series 23 footer with the tagline reading- “comfort that follows you around the world” or something similar. You could stare at those for hours, imagining what some far off corner of the world was like. God, what a time, the 90s. Everything seemed like it was just about to become possible. A world full of possibilities.
Imagine for a second what it was like. You had NEVER seen or heard of a cell phone. Your watch is how you know when to be somewhere and you have to either be home before you call someone or you need an organizer on your wrist to keep your schedule 🤣
Before you turned the LED lights back on I was gonna try and get one lol, after hearing it spazz out I can't do that to myself, who knew a smart bulb would prevent me from getting an old watch lmao, awesome video and thanks for sharing this little gem with us
I still use the USB version (there it is, at 5:08!). Getting a little bit complicated over time - I own three of them and one developed a screen fault after a heavy rainstorm - and another one the backlight failed the day I bought it at retail... And the wristbands have all fallen apart. But I still have one working one. The USB cables are a bit of a problem as well, they tend to fail over time. I bought the Datalink USB around 2009 or so because I found out that you can load your own programs onto it. I really liked the idea of having a programmable wristwatch with a versatile display, but with battery performance more like a regular watch. (i.e. battery life measured in *months*, not *days*) I got the free assembler for it (and found/corrected a bug in it!) and developed an app for it, called "T-Minus" - a countdown/countup timer I use to keep track of upcoming events and various memorable dates. Oh, and the tagline from the Datalink USB, "The wristwatch that thinks it's a PDA", is itself a relic.
Still, at the time we didn't have cell phones. How else do you remember all the phone numbers you need heh;. Yea those straps were crap. I always wanted to find the metal band version, but the only store that carried them was Incredible Universe and they closed up about the time Timex stopped making them.
@@warlockd With the USB version there were a few different style/wristband options. The Ironman style with the metal band actually still used resin for the links, over time the links would crack and break down just like the resin wristbands. I had to repair my metal wristband a bunch of times using spare parts until finally I ran out and made a paracord wristband for it instead.
I had two generations of this watch, and friggin' loved it. I was in high school (1996 graduate) when I had it was probably one of my favorite pieces of tech in that time.
This watch is pretty awesome. It is so fascinating to see these weird 90s precursors and compare them to what we have and use today. Back then it seemed like you really did not need it. now a simular concept with better tech is used widely today
And Seiko UC2000 was 10 years before of that. With wireless keyboard with Basic, ability to upload software from ROM packs, doing back-ups and lots of other things.
Thanks for this! I remember always kind of wondering what the Data Link watches were but never looked into it and forgot. This scratched an itch I didn't know I had.
That pricing for the basic model actually isn’t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. Yeah, after inflation that probably equals at least 250 bucks now, but that still is pretty competitive with modern smartwatches - ones of any quality anyway.
My apple watch was more than that, and it’s been worth every penny. It’s the only thing that keeps me on track for attending meetings on time. Honestly this is an amazing price for the technology.
Love the NIN shirt… already thought you were awesome, but now in my opinion you’re one of the best! Thanks for your great content and the diligence put into your delivery
Really nailed the wardrobe in this one, Clint. I feel called out. 😄 I had a very similar gray plaid jacket, that exact same NIN shirt, and a green and brown Timex with indiglo back in the 90s--frequently worn together. Nice work (as usual).
I used to have one of these watches. I had the metal band one, the one before that leather watch strap one. Was a good watch and used it for years even as just a watch when i didn't have any CRT's left to sync it with. Then it finally broke.
I used to have a small keychain "PDA" that synced using a similar system, but it used two black and white flickering boxes EDIT: It was called the "Z-Touch"
HOLY HELL THANK YOU. I had one of these and this video reminded me of it, I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. Been searching for hours lol.
I had (and probably still have, lost in a “junk” nightstand drawer) both models: the CRT transfer and the USB one. The CRT transfer model was much more cooler as it seems more sci-fi to wirelessly transfer data with a computer flashing screen than transferring date with a clunky USB adapter. I kept the latest model until I got my first iPhone. That pretty much killed the purpose of the watch then.
Wonderful to see you cover this! I had the Ironman Triathlon version of the watch as a teenager, I thought it was really cool to see it communicate wirelessly like that at the time. I wore it all the time until sometime before 2004 when it finally died on me. Still kinda miss it in a way.
I had the Ironman Triathlon version with the silver band and black links. It's the one on the far right in the video. I too got it as a teenager and wore it everyday until the band broke and I couldn't find any that were compatible. I still have the watch in a drawer.
I had an ironman triathalon back in 90s and that was the coolest thing. However, I found out the hard way that the early flat screen monitor didn't work making a feature I barely used absolutely worthless. But the indigo light was the coolest thing ever.
Awesome video. You should add a message to other Timex Datalink owners by adding a sync barcode at the end of the video. Sure, not many people will watch this on a CRT, but it would add a nice level of interactivity
@@Joonsky5991 I didn't think you could change the wake word for Alexa beyond a few options Amazon gives. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Clint voiced-over the wake word because he knows how annoying it can be to have a video activate your voice assistant. Unfortunately I don't watch LGR/Clint enough to know all his tech setups.
"Why doesn't work with WinNT/2000/XP?" I remember Timex software installing a Display DCI VxD (.386/.VxD) in order to drive the display adapter in the way Timex needs it. VxDs will not work with NT OS kernels. My thought is that would be possible to use DirectDraw as alternative to VxD vdds to drive the display in the way the Watch needs... But at time we got a DirectDraw version which doesn't suck (DirectDraw7), Timex Datalink was already EOL and obsolete.
Honestly if it's just drawing a few horizontal lines, you don't need a special driver. You just need a good vsync detection, nothing interrupting your program execution for too long, and ability to get a chosen resolution & refresh rate running. The overhead of drawing and erasing the lines is pretty minimal even if you go through a pretty indirect API and it should be pretty easy to draw or erase the whole set of lines each frame.
@@big0bad0brad Remember this was done on Win31 days. MS was experimenting back then with Non-DOS accelerated APIs for upcoming Win95. Win31 GDI by default is too slow for this sort of usage, so they decided give their upcoming DCI (which would merge later with DirectX to become DirectDraw) display interface a real case usage. The only shortcomings is that Timex software would only work in Win31 386 mode, and this isn't compatible with certain video drivers (I've got TIMEX.386 bsods with nVidia Win31 drivers for example). Windows 95 has a revamped DCI interface, so TIMEXI.vxd is less prone to BSoD, unless you have one older versions of SiS display drivers.
Love the video I had a Datalink and I’d still use it today if the stop watch style button on my version hadn’t popped off. The key thing for me was the multiple alarms, but I used the data send feature to.
Well that hits me right in the nostalgia. I had a watch without the “link” part of this where you had to enter everything with clunky buttons on the watch. A, B, C, D, E, F…. Spent a lot of time messing around with that thing while bored. I remember seeing ads for the data link version and wanting it so bad.
I remember seeing tech like this trying to gain traction with a toy called E-Brain, it was a computer toy that you could program to do certain games and functions through the monitor. Really interesting and weird piece of tech, sounds up your alley.
@@garry12gg I saw that and I was really amazed people even remember that technology considering it was only sold at toy store. As soon as I saw the first few minutes of what the data link did it made me remember that, so that was a pleasant surprise.
IIRC, the sensor on the Data Link was basically a 1-pixel camera with a very fast refresh rate. When receiving data from a CRT, it is dependent on the vertical retrace process to "see" the light level going high (for the white line) and low (for the black lines between). At higher refresh rates, the software will space the white lines further apart to keep the data rate (the number of milliseconds between white lines being drawn) roughly constant. This is also why it doesn't work on LCDs -- as far as the watch can see, all of the data bits (white lines) effectively turn on and off simultaneously on an LCD, and there's no dark period (vertical blanking interval) because the backlight is on constantly. I guess the high-speed flicker of modern LED lights looks a lot like an electron gun drawing some horizontal lines to the watch.
I suspect the reason it doesn't work with NT based systems is that it was directly accessing I/O registers, (which you could do with 3.x because you just a layer on DOS), without all that messing about with actually writing a proper driver with appropriate 'security' measures like wot you have to do nowadays. Happier simpler times.
Nah... It uses a VxD DCI driver (TIMEX.386 and TIMEXI.vxd). That's why a Win95 version came directly bundled on Win95 CD versions, as old versions of the software came with old VxD DCIs which don't work on Win95. The only way to do the same thing with WinNT display drivers is using DirectDraw or DXGI on NT6+, which didn't exist until Win2000 with DirectDraw7.
hey!!! i have one of these floating around my parents' house! me and my dad love your channel and were thinking about sending it to you years ago, but it never came to be. even cooler now to see you doing a video on it!
Absolutely wonderful walk down memory lane I forgot all about my Ironman Triathlon. Absolutely loved it worked wonderfully majority of the time. I now wonder if any of the issues I had when I first had it we're due to possible interference from lighting. Thank you for rekindling a memory
If you didn't grow up in the era, it might be hard to understand just how impressive and "futuristic" optical data recognition like this was on a consumer device, especially something as small as a watch.
I had one of these as a kid, I believe it was of the ironman variety. Used with windows 95 on a packard bell…Fun times, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I used mine until finally getting a smart phone, ('08 or 9?) and can confirm it did work with NT4.0 without the adapter. To be fair I probably had to run it in a mode emulating 95 or something; that much I cannot remember.
I had one of these. I got it at the Microsoft store and I used it for a while. At some point, that watch had an issue that allowed me to take advantage of the warranty so I sent it back but got the USB version, which I still have but the band broke and was unique to the watch itself so now it just sits in a drawer. Around 2004ish, Microsoft was about to release their next version of Outlook. Since we were all using this "dogfood" version, I reached out to Timex to tell them their plugin didn't work but they'd didn't seem to care. I think that was probably the end of the life of those watches. It was a pretty cool thing to have back then and very useful.
Thank you, Clint, for the memories. I had the 150 as a teenager. It was quite massive and built like a tank, and the "apps" were nice too - things like a stopwatch or a timer
Absolutely fantastic ride down memory lane. Our IT guy had one of these in 1996. I remember being fascinated by it. The lines flashing on screen immediately recalled my sense memories of his office and the first time I watched him update the watch. I’m a watch freak now so your video tickled that obsession too. Thanks for the ride!
I went to high school with a rich kid who had one of these as well as a watch with a docking station keyboard that could be used to put in calendar info as well as sync from a PC. I came so close to using a week's pay from Kroger to buy one. Instead, I purchased Magic the Gathering cards that I wish I still had. I could probably retire off of them.
I owned a beepwear pro from tomex it was a watch with a beeper inside! I loved it! I purchased it when they first came out in when I was in highschool.. I remember syncing my contacts to it this same way.
@LGR i appreciate all your videos man, big fan from Eastern Europe even tho I did not catch the 90's and 80's a lot of the tech you showcase here we got in the 2000's so it's a fun trip down nostalgia lane for me, thank you for your hard work and keep it up.
I had one of the watches with integrated Pager. It was amazing back then, felt like something james bond would use. Battery life was…not good 😁. I replaced it with a mobile phone as they became more available and cheaper…
Just came across this video. Still have mine and use, the 75 and also have to 150 and the infrared adaptor. Still works a dream, just have to use on my old laptop that has a serial port :)
Dude! I had a Timex with that exact same strap but it wasn't very smart. It's big selling point was "Indigo" (said with a space echoey voice effect). Indigo was all the rage back then. The brown leather and dark turquoise strap is so reminiscent of that era.
Ooh, this sounds like a really fun piece of tech. This entire era of digital watches gaining more and more features back then is immensely fascinating to me.
I had the Iron Man Triathlon Timex Datalink watch, and my dad had an earlier version of the Timex Datalink too. Brings back some heavy nostalgia. Honestly I think it's the best watch I've ever owned. Really good quality all round.
One of my faviourite watches, ever. I still use it sometimes, I kept a CRT monitor especially for it (never managed to source the so called "laptop adapter" at reasonable price). I also have a collection of mini-apps for it, including rudimentary Space Invaders 🙂 Oh, and it's official: it's the most accurate watch in my collection (and I have about 80), excluding those with radio sync, of course. I look at it right now and it's off 4 seconds - 2 years after I've last set it up...
Seeing Made in the Philippines electronic used by US market warms my heart. From Analog Devices, Texas Instrument, early Intel processors, to this. As always, great content.
I recall Microsoft of this era frequently showing off some weird "connected home" gadget that was interesting in concept, but far beyond practical in application, but I don't ever recall this watch being one of them. Perhaps the more practical gadget, at the leading edge of the days of PDAs, it's interesting that the packaging really speaks to who this is marketed to, as it's your run-of-the-mill 1990s software box rather than a watch package, which would actually let you see the watch inside. I had also forgotten all about "Indiglo," another 1990s buzz-thing everyone talked about for a year or 2 then became commonplace or just passe. I recall people coming out to the observatory all excited to show off their new Indiglo watch.
Fun fact: Indiglo is literally a "buzz-thing". Press the watch onto your ear and turn on the Indiglo, you can hear a surprisingly loud buzzing - it is the switching voltage inverter stepping up the EL feed voltage, coil magnetically singing with the rhythm of the switching frequency. Applies also to EL lights with less buzzing trade names :)
When I was a kid my parents let me pick out a watch to buy, I chose this one. It was amazing. To be honest, I never used the datalink feature, mostly cause I didn't need to keep track of phone numbers, but it was still cool to show off. I had the Ironman one, very classic.
I had one of these! I always wondered how the data was encoded. It looks like a parallel 8-bit (with some sort of a frame bit) yet I always thought that the sensor on the watch looked like a simple phototransistor that wouldn't be able to see the individual lines. It would be interesting to use one of those multi-input USB analyzing oscilloscopes connected to some phototransistors adhered to the right spots on the screen to see if the analyzer could decode the data. Thanks for the memories, Clint!
It is just a photoresistor. It can "see" the individual lines because a CRT draws top to bottom and the lines fade out even before the next line is drawn. It's your eyes that trick you into it being a continuous image - that's an illusion. It's blinking like mad and it's that blinking the watch sees.
I used to have one of these. Love seeing it revisited. Wish I knew where mine went. Lack of support for LCDs certainly killed my continued use of this and I wasn't about to go buy an adapter when my cell phones started to get some of these features instead. Funny that I am moving back to a smart watch given their capabilities today. This was a great tech for it's time and with my poor memory it was a great supplement for remembering phone numbers, dates and appointments.
I worked for Timex as an engineer at their headquarters in Middlebury, CT from 2012 - 2019. I still live only a few miles away and have some contacts on the inside that I talk to occasionally. There is a huge stock of new and old watches at the building. Several times I went spelunking into them and it was fascinating to hear stories about their construction. One time this watch popped up and I had a few hour conversation with one of the guys who knew the engineering secrets of it.
If there are any oddball watches that you want to get your hands on for a video, I might be able to pull a few strings. Of course, they probably won't be new in package. Anyhow, great video. I always jump on videos in my feed when Timex comes up.
Hope he read this comment.
Don't get your hopes up, he probably gets several comments like that that are not legitimate and automatically ignores them.
>Anyhow, great video. I always jump on videos in my feed when Timex comes up.
Like a crazy ex-girlfriend watching relationship status changes?
Oooh be nice if you could find the SDK kit they had for it. You could contact Timex and get a kit on how to make apps for your "enterprise" company, but never could convince them I was one:P
Upping just in case!
I had the Ironman version. As an EMT, I had all the hospital ERs, department contacts, etc on my wrist. It was so cool and useful back then.
Wow just like a smartwatch is useful these days 😮
@@camotech1314 "Useful" is a strong word when everyone has phones.
I too owned this piece of oddware back in the mid-ninties in the UK. Memories resurfacing syncing this and having to close the curtains to reduce the glare off the monitor 🤪
I used one in High School for my schedule instead of the school planner we were supposed to use. The overhead lights were a pain in the butt
Oh my god I had one too... Syncing this thing was a nightmare for me... So funny to see it here on oddware
I didn't have this. But i did have an indiglo watch, and i still have it. It's sort of like a 'good luck' charm in a way.
I first found it on the ground in this parking lot, must have fallen out of someone's car. And i had it for years, always accurate too for a cheap timex. It accidentally went through the washer and dryer a few times, didn't phase it at all. I lost it a couple times outside. The strap broke so i carried it in my pocket, this was before cell phones. Anyway i dropped it on the side of the road one day walking home. Thought it was gone, and it just so happened that my brother was walking by one day and heard a beep. Came home like check out this watch i found!
So because of the abuse and always being found, and usually my luck is crap. I keep it in a trinket box of random sentimental value items. I carried that thing around through a lot.
I had one as well. I feel like I had to sync it at a friend's house because they had Windows XP and I had Windows 3.1, but here in the video Windows 3.1 is working fine.
I have no idea why I had one. I was definitely in elementary school and didn't have a lot of meetings or appointments.
Well, I didn't know this was even that prevalent, seemingly at least somewhat useful, and Timex. I thought it was something odder, useless novelty of never-heard brand. What I'm meaning, I had never owned, known anyone to own, nor familiarized on these, but indirect fond memories came up - I remember reading a review of one on some computer magazine in 90s. I specifically remember there was, in the text, mentioned the "flashing lines on monitor" when transmiting data, even though there were no pictures of such in the article.
Interesting to see this now, and what I really love in this product is the good UI design on the software - SO lost art nowadays.
This was a delight to see again. I had one of these watches in middle/high school and loved it. I was the resident nerd, and even though it didn't necessarily gain me any popularity points, people still thought it was awesome. I later also got one of the Royal FL95 organizers, something I really didn't need, but thought the tech was so cool that I had to get one. Good times.
Respect
the indiglo lighting was a genuine delight though, I very clearly remember how terrible watch lights were previous to this innovation. you could really only see the corner of the screen where the light was.
Yes! I had a side-lit analog watch before getting a Timex Indiglo, and it was nuts going from that tiny bulb to a full on backlit teal display.
Ya my casio f91w which I have worn for the past 24 years is that side lit nonsense but hey I have only needed to replace the battery once.
@@LGR Probably your Indiglo is dim due to the phosphors going bad; They work the same way EL wire works. Both have a limited lifespan. Also, I had an organizer that used this type of data transfer. Can't for the life of me remember who made it... Casio maybe?
It may have just been my (private, college-prep) middle school, but everyone had to have a Timex Ironman Indiglo in 1995-1996 when I was in sixth grade. It got to the point where they had to make an announcement at assemblies to turn the beep off, or the whole commons area would just become a crowd of chirping watches for a good 90 seconds (since watches didn't automatically sync to any sort of time signal).
Lol, you just brought me back. I had totally forgot how hilarious “tech” was back then..
When I was in high school I found one of these randomly on the ground in a parking lot. I could never figure out how to make it work and it wasn't until much later that I figured out you needed software to make it work with the computer..... yea the 90s was a simpler time 😃
I remember wanting one of these so bad when I was a kid! Never got one tho. Thanks for featuring it. I had totally forgotten about it.
Same! I remember seeing it advertised and thinking how awesome it was, but I could never afford it.
Same here. Never got one, and I'm sure if I actually did, I wouldn't have had much use for it, but it just seemed cool.
My dad had that watch as a kid. He was a computer scientist for the government at the time.
Started to comment the exact same thing and saw yours! Seeing this now in 2022, what would I have even done with this as a kid?! Maybe store my Grandma's contact info?
You didn't miss much. It was a cool idea but it didn't work that well.
I had one of these. It was an Ironman and I loved it. It had all of my phone numbers and birthday reminders. Near the end of it's life I didn't have a computer with a CRT. Kind of heart broken I got in contact with Timex to see if there was anything that could be done. To my delight, the send me updated software that fixes the refresh rate difference so it would update from my laptop screen. I was beyond happy and got another year or two before the watch finally died.
With LCDs it's not that the refresh rate is too low. It's the fact that the watch relies on the raster itself, just like the Nintendo light gun. Basically when the CRT is scanned, pretty much only a single point is lit at a time. The software just displays static lines spaced appropriately and the CRT does the rest. After a few refreshes the lines are moved to another spot.
The NES Zapper _doesn't_ rely on the raster though,* at least not in Duck Hunt. What kills it on a modern TV is display lag. The TV takes too long to process the signal before displaying it, and old NES games have no provision for dealing with that lag.
Basically, when you pull the trigger, the screen goes black for 1 frame, then a white box appears for 1 frame where the first target is, then another box for 1 frame at the 2nd target, and so on. Then the screen goes black for one more frame before showing the game again. Display lag throws off this timing; the sensor in the gun sees the light at the wrong time, so the game thinks you missed.
EDIT: The 8-Bit Guy did a video about this process in 2016 -- ua-cam.com/video/Nu-Hoj4EIjU/v-deo.html :/EDIT
I suppose a homebrew game could deal with this by adding a calibration screen at the beginning of the game. Hold the trigger at it, and the game puts out light and dark flashes of differing length, then times how much lag there is in the gun sensor seeing the same pattern.
* though there were light guns on _other_ systems that _do_ rely on seeing what scan line is being drawn
Exactly. A set of lines on a crt becomes a blinking pattern over time just by virtue of being displayed, since the electron beam sweeps line by line. No LCD does so this will never work on an LCD.
See this video to understand how a crt works... ua-cam.com/video/3BJU2drrtCM/v-deo.html
@@AaronOfMpls I've always heard the lag AND the way CRTs work are the problem.
@@AaronOfMpls
it's not just display lag, otherwise it should technically work on a modern gaming monitor, but it doesn't.
the sensor in the gun sees only IR, which led monitors and tv's do not emit. on some high refresh rate plasma tv's it works if you stand close enough
I love how such basic functions such as auto clock sync was considered a huge selling point back in the day. Now smartphone manufacturers are running out of reasons to buy the latest iPhone or galaxy
No they aren't. Most "smart" phones are designed to self-destruct after a few years one way or another, like incandescent light bulbs. Just put 5 cameras on the back and charge a grand for good measure. Makes me think of the early experimental planes with like 5 wings on them. "Smart" - LOL.
it folds. it has no edge on the fone.
it have alot of cameras on it. it has 1 more cam than the last one.
its slightly bigger.
it will do the same thing as a 100$ phone!
Yeah, I should have clarified. The gimmicks are to distinguish them and the walled garden ecosystems to try and lock people in (among other things), but they insure that you will need to get new phones every so often one way or another. As a last resort they even change cellular service connectivity eventually, like 2G and 3G going away in the US.
Every phone since 2000 gets time from the cell network. For a watch, auto setting is still a feature.
@@hermitgreenn actually it's an extremely useful one when my alarm clock runs out of batteries and by the magic of radio waves somehow it gets its time (RDS I'm guessing)
Clint thanks for continuing to make Oddware happen. I know I have some nostalgia for this era, but I think Oddware is interesting for more than that: I have so much respect for engineers and designers of that era. They could see the future, it was right within their grasp, and they had the resourcefulness to use what little tech was available to create something that works. As an engineer and tinkerer these days, we have it easy.
Oh also my sprinkler system is connected to wifi. In order to configure the SSID and passcode to it, I had to run their app on my phone and hold the phone up to the sprinkler controllers optical sensor. The app then modulated the phone screens brightness in rapid succession to transmit the wifi connection info over. Almost the same concept, but in the modern day!
There are still watches today that work similarly! The new Longines VHP can sync the time and time zones with a smartphone app, despite not having bluetooth. The app flashes the flashlight of your phone and the watch has an optical sensor of some kind behind the dial.
Oh, wow!
11:22 That Indiglo demonstration was hilariously underwhelming, haha. I don't know what I expected.
Electroluminescent backlights don't put out a ton of light but in my experience they're great for low light levels where you can't read the display otherwise. Particularly if it's the type of display where the light shines through the "white" parts of the display (in the early 2000s it became common for the light to shine through the "black" parts of the display - which meant it was legible in light environments, legible (but inverted) in dark environments, but in low-light environments, you could get into this weird territory where the backlight shining through the "black" parts of the display was too close to the level of ambient light reflecting off the "white" parts of the display, rendering the whole thing illegible...)
It was WILD in 1993 though, haha. I was so proud of my cheapo Indiglo as a kid, rapidly running down the battery by constantly lighting up my watch in the backseat on an overnight road trip.
@@LGR Youre not kidding, I remember my buddy showing up in class with one, I was so jealous lol Compared to the normal side-lit watches of the day, Indiglo was amazing in comparison. Love the NIN shirt too, btw!
@@LGR Accompanied by lightsaber noises...
@@LGR Ah the joys of growing up in the 90s. I had a few indiglo watches back then as a kid and as girly as mine were, even the boys were jealous. Quite a silly typically kid thing to be overly proud about. I wanted and even saved up for a Timex Datalink watch, but never managed to find one before I grew out of my 486, then forgot that they existed.
Thanks so much for this blast from the past, Clint! I just replaced the battery in the luxury version of this - stainless steel/gold band with an actual glass crystal face. Would love to get it working like it did 20 years ago with calendar and alarm data loaded on it.
Awesome video as usual.
They are even more powerful, I had Timex Expedition with datalink years ago. You could write your own code for them, they had around 2KB of RAM and Timex provided header files.
I had the later datalink USB. Dot matrix display made simple games like Tetris and "Mario" possible.
Your mention of data being transmitted/stored visually reminded me of Williams tubes (aka CRTs being used as RAM). Very cool concept, actually generated visible patterns on the CRT to store the data
I had a datalink when new, was a nerdy kid but man I remember buying it at K-Mart and being mind blown by how it moved data with no wires!
I got mine at a K-Mart too. I was fascinated how it worked wirelessly. Really cool stuff at the time and that watch lasted forever it seemed.
I also had one of the watches. Don't remember how I got it. I was in high school at the time. I remember I was having difficulty remembering some of the periodic table of elements for a test coming up in science... I put in the information I needed into the watch and just covertly accessed it during the test. Teachers didn't even know about this watch back then. So it just appeared like I was looking at the time. Not my proudest moment, but I never got caught either lol
Did the computer display look the same at home as it does in this video? I'm wondering if it had multiple thin lines like we see here or if it was something different that his camera just didn't pick up completely.
The reason I'm curious is, knowing that would help me understand how the sensor worked.
@@heatshield from what I remember, it did look like that.
I had a data link too. Got it from Kmart as well. Really liked it. Still have it in some random drawer. They also made a separate transmitter for the watch if you didn't have a CRT.
I still wear one of these! By now its a hybrid of guts, case and band from various models. It has the loudest alarm of any watch I know. Thanks for the vid!
We are eventually going to reach the peak LGR oddware item. If this somehow also synced with an Arcade cabinet and also had those old school calculator buttons, I think that would do it.
Someone SOMEHOW porting a version of Doom on it would be an absolute 10
@@TheSynthPunk This and maybe if it could also control the DOS home automation setup remotely and view data from the DOS weather station
They need to add some wood paneling options and let you use it as a mouse
@@melskunk The LGR Woodgrain DOS remote-controlling mouse Timex-smartwatch that syncs with a CRT from 1994 =)
EDIT: I realize that probably should have a comma or two in it somewhere to be more legible, but I'll leave it as it is for... fun?
Love your channel and your content. I was born 1965. Had all type of video game consoles , pc’s , audio, video…..etc. I’m a geek just like you and your subscribers. That being said….the passion and excitement you show when opening OEM! You are the king of geeks and nerds! Keep up the good work!
I remember back in the day, as a kid, exploring all menus of MS Office and finding this sync feature in Schedule+ or some early Outlook versions. I even triggered those flashing barcodes without anything to receive them. It's nice to finally see this in action properly, some 25 years later ;)
I loved this watch! It's probably my favorite smartwatch I have ever used. I was already a big fan of Timex Ironman watches so a "smart" version for a techy person like me was a instant buy. I wore it for many years and bought a couple versions until it became too much of a hassle to update using the old software.
My dad still daily wears a datalink watch, still syncs like a charm!
Not gunna lie, that's actually pretty cool that he's kept using it, does he still keep an old PC around for the sync or does he have the software on a more modern system?
@@UNSCPILOT He has an old CRT for this.
Oh man I remember the eBrain! I thought that would be too darn obscure for a video like this, but I didn't realize that the technology behind it was so special! Appreciate the mention and thanks for reminding me of a small part of my childhood!
If I’m remembering correctly, the sounds were created by a pizo transducer which was mounted on the back cover. I think I had to adjust a contact from the circuit board to make a better connection after changing the battery the 2nd or 3rd time when the sounds stopped.
Piezo
On the USB model the piezo transducer is mounted to the metal back-plate of the watch - so if you changed the battery but rotated the back-plate before reinstalling it, you wouldn't get sound any more...
@@tetsujin_144 Ah fascinating. I'll have to double-check the backplate on my silent one!
That sounds like, well, every watch with a beeper I've ever owned. A little conductive spring on the mechanism. :)
@@LGR There was a small hole inside the case with a little spring that went from the circuit board to the backplate. It probably fell out when you changed the battery.
It's weird the things you remember!
The thing that’s most nostalgic for me is the advertising insert with tagline- “the watch with the biggest ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me’ factor ever recorded”. That is absolutely pure vintage 90s marketing. Reminds me of boating magazines with images of some Hunter series 23 footer with the tagline reading- “comfort that follows you around the world” or something similar. You could stare at those for hours, imagining what some far off corner of the world was like.
God, what a time, the 90s. Everything seemed like it was just about to become possible. A world full of possibilities.
Some of these videos you do are super cool, to see strange tech with ideas *WAY* ahead of their time, and maybe still are in a way.
Imagine for a second what it was like. You had NEVER seen or heard of a cell phone. Your watch is how you know when to be somewhere and you have to either be home before you call someone or you need an organizer on your wrist to keep your schedule 🤣
@@BadWallaby This was 1994. Cell phones were sold since 1983. Everyone knew about them in 1994.
@@jimb12312 maybe so, but not many had them then.
@@VictoryHighway Relatively few had them but everyone knew about cellphones. They were common enough. By 2000 almost everyone had a cellphone.
Before you turned the LED lights back on I was gonna try and get one lol, after hearing it spazz out I can't do that to myself, who knew a smart bulb would prevent me from getting an old watch lmao, awesome video and thanks for sharing this little gem with us
I still use the USB version (there it is, at 5:08!). Getting a little bit complicated over time - I own three of them and one developed a screen fault after a heavy rainstorm - and another one the backlight failed the day I bought it at retail... And the wristbands have all fallen apart. But I still have one working one. The USB cables are a bit of a problem as well, they tend to fail over time.
I bought the Datalink USB around 2009 or so because I found out that you can load your own programs onto it. I really liked the idea of having a programmable wristwatch with a versatile display, but with battery performance more like a regular watch. (i.e. battery life measured in *months*, not *days*) I got the free assembler for it (and found/corrected a bug in it!) and developed an app for it, called "T-Minus" - a countdown/countup timer I use to keep track of upcoming events and various memorable dates.
Oh, and the tagline from the Datalink USB, "The wristwatch that thinks it's a PDA", is itself a relic.
Still, at the time we didn't have cell phones. How else do you remember all the phone numbers you need heh;. Yea those straps were crap. I always wanted to find the metal band version, but the only store that carried them was Incredible Universe and they closed up about the time Timex stopped making them.
@@warlockd With the USB version there were a few different style/wristband options. The Ironman style with the metal band actually still used resin for the links, over time the links would crack and break down just like the resin wristbands. I had to repair my metal wristband a bunch of times using spare parts until finally I ran out and made a paracord wristband for it instead.
I had two generations of this watch, and friggin' loved it. I was in high school (1996 graduate) when I had it was probably one of my favorite pieces of tech in that time.
This watch is pretty awesome. It is so fascinating to see these weird 90s precursors and compare them to what we have and use today. Back then it seemed like you really did not need it. now a simular concept with better tech is used widely today
A lot of 90's stuff was a few decades ahead of it's time.
@@sithyarael6807 yes too bad the tech wasn't ready for it quite yet
And Seiko UC2000 was 10 years before of that. With wireless keyboard with Basic, ability to upload software from ROM packs, doing back-ups and lots of other things.
Thanks for this! I remember always kind of wondering what the Data Link watches were but never looked into it and forgot. This scratched an itch I didn't know I had.
That pricing for the basic model actually isn’t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. Yeah, after inflation that probably equals at least 250 bucks now, but that still is pretty competitive with modern smartwatches - ones of any quality anyway.
My apple watch was more than that, and it’s been worth every penny. It’s the only thing that keeps me on track for attending meetings on time. Honestly this is an amazing price for the technology.
Yea back then the price was good. Your looking at paying that much for a watch with a keyboard but no water proofing.
And the price was the same for the pager version, which is very nice indeed.
I still have my Model 70 at home... I do miss that watch at times... :-) Looking forward to this vid!
Smart tech being done before the smartphone revolution is always the coolest
It is just a computer, the name "smart" is just marketing word for the sheep.
Love the NIN shirt… already thought you were awesome, but now in my opinion you’re one of the best! Thanks for your great content and the diligence put into your delivery
Really nailed the wardrobe in this one, Clint. I feel called out. 😄 I had a very similar gray plaid jacket, that exact same NIN shirt, and a green and brown Timex with indiglo back in the 90s--frequently worn together. Nice work (as usual).
I worked on this project and the succeeding iterations. It was fun!
If you have the plastic strap with the 1s and 0s, there's an easter egg there. 🙂
Oddsware episodes are always my favourite! What a cool watch, I can only imagine how impressive this was back in the day 🤩
I used to have one of these watches. I had the metal band one, the one before that leather watch strap one. Was a good watch and used it for years even as just a watch when i didn't have any CRT's left to sync it with. Then it finally broke.
I used to have a small keychain "PDA" that synced using a similar system, but it used two black and white flickering boxes
EDIT: It was called the "Z-Touch"
HOLY HELL THANK YOU. I had one of these and this video reminded me of it, I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. Been searching for hours lol.
You're videos are really great!
Your mic is amazing. Fantastic audio. Do whatever you did in this video, in terms of audio, in all videos.
I had (and probably still have, lost in a “junk” nightstand drawer) both models: the CRT transfer and the USB one. The CRT transfer model was much more cooler as it seems more sci-fi to wirelessly transfer data with a computer flashing screen than transferring date with a clunky USB adapter.
I kept the latest model until I got my first iPhone. That pretty much killed the purpose of the watch then.
I've got one of these that still works. Quite a piece of machinery in its day.
13:20 Clint's 1st priority and ONLY thing he is supposed to do today is just hilarious.
Love it when you feature something that I owned as “Oddware”… thanks for making me feel old 🤣
Not old... just odd. Lol
I have been wearing one for almost three years and I love it so much! Restored mine to new condition (150)
Wonderful to see you cover this! I had the Ironman Triathlon version of the watch as a teenager, I thought it was really cool to see it communicate wirelessly like that at the time. I wore it all the time until sometime before 2004 when it finally died on me. Still kinda miss it in a way.
I had the Ironman Triathlon version with the silver band and black links. It's the one on the far right in the video.
I too got it as a teenager and wore it everyday until the band broke and I couldn't find any that were compatible. I still have the watch in a drawer.
I had an ironman triathalon back in 90s and that was the coolest thing. However, I found out the hard way that the early flat screen monitor didn't work making a feature I barely used absolutely worthless. But the indigo light was the coolest thing ever.
Awesome video. You should add a message to other Timex Datalink owners by adding a sync barcode at the end of the video. Sure, not many people will watch this on a CRT, but it would add a nice level of interactivity
LGR: "Flerp Nerp, put my lights out."
Flerp Nerp: "Duuhh okay boss.."
(Fade to black, sounds of scuffling)
Do you know what voice assistant he uses? I want to remember my voice assistant Flerp Nerp.
@@stephengnb Alexa ? I guess ...
@@Joonsky5991 I didn't think you could change the wake word for Alexa beyond a few options Amazon gives.
I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Clint voiced-over the wake word because he knows how annoying it can be to have a video activate your voice assistant. Unfortunately I don't watch LGR/Clint enough to know all his tech setups.
This was so much fun ! Very clear you had fun too, Clint !!
"Why doesn't work with WinNT/2000/XP?" I remember Timex software installing a Display DCI VxD (.386/.VxD) in order to drive the display adapter in the way Timex needs it. VxDs will not work with NT OS kernels. My thought is that would be possible to use DirectDraw as alternative to VxD vdds to drive the display in the way the Watch needs... But at time we got a DirectDraw version which doesn't suck (DirectDraw7), Timex Datalink was already EOL and obsolete.
Honestly if it's just drawing a few horizontal lines, you don't need a special driver. You just need a good vsync detection, nothing interrupting your program execution for too long, and ability to get a chosen resolution & refresh rate running. The overhead of drawing and erasing the lines is pretty minimal even if you go through a pretty indirect API and it should be pretty easy to draw or erase the whole set of lines each frame.
@@big0bad0brad Remember this was done on Win31 days. MS was experimenting back then with Non-DOS accelerated APIs for upcoming Win95. Win31 GDI by default is too slow for this sort of usage, so they decided give their upcoming DCI (which would merge later with DirectX to become DirectDraw) display interface a real case usage. The only shortcomings is that Timex software would only work in Win31 386 mode, and this isn't compatible with certain video drivers (I've got TIMEX.386 bsods with nVidia Win31 drivers for example).
Windows 95 has a revamped DCI interface, so TIMEXI.vxd is less prone to BSoD, unless you have one older versions of SiS display drivers.
@@hyoenmadan GDI couldn't even draw 540 horizontal lines a second?
Two words: Virtual Machine
Love the video
I had a Datalink and I’d still use it today if the stop watch style button on my version hadn’t popped off. The key thing for me was the multiple alarms, but I used the data send feature to.
Well that hits me right in the nostalgia. I had a watch without the “link” part of this where you had to enter everything with clunky buttons on the watch. A, B, C, D, E, F…. Spent a lot of time messing around with that thing while bored. I remember seeing ads for the data link version and wanting it so bad.
I literally had this exact watch growing up. Syncing was a hilarious, but intriguing, process.
I remember seeing tech like this trying to gain traction with a toy called E-Brain, it was a computer toy that you could program to do certain games and functions through the monitor. Really interesting and weird piece of tech, sounds up your alley.
He showed it later in the video.
@@garry12gg I saw that and I was really amazed people even remember that technology considering it was only sold at toy store. As soon as I saw the first few minutes of what the data link did it made me remember that, so that was a pleasant surprise.
oddware is always my favorite! where we take a look at hardware and software that is odd, forgotten and obsolete!
Oddware is my favorite. These are the types of things my parents would buy in hopes to "get with the times"
IIRC, the sensor on the Data Link was basically a 1-pixel camera with a very fast refresh rate. When receiving data from a CRT, it is dependent on the vertical retrace process to "see" the light level going high (for the white line) and low (for the black lines between). At higher refresh rates, the software will space the white lines further apart to keep the data rate (the number of milliseconds between white lines being drawn) roughly constant. This is also why it doesn't work on LCDs -- as far as the watch can see, all of the data bits (white lines) effectively turn on and off simultaneously on an LCD, and there's no dark period (vertical blanking interval) because the backlight is on constantly.
I guess the high-speed flicker of modern LED lights looks a lot like an electron gun drawing some horizontal lines to the watch.
I suspect the reason it doesn't work with NT based systems is that it was directly accessing I/O registers, (which you could do with 3.x because you just a layer on DOS), without all that messing about with actually writing a proper driver with appropriate 'security' measures like wot you have to do nowadays. Happier simpler times.
Nah... It uses a VxD DCI driver (TIMEX.386 and TIMEXI.vxd). That's why a Win95 version came directly bundled on Win95 CD versions, as old versions of the software came with old VxD DCIs which don't work on Win95. The only way to do the same thing with WinNT display drivers is using DirectDraw or DXGI on NT6+, which didn't exist until Win2000 with DirectDraw7.
Yes. Windows NT wasn’t built for gaming or anything with real-time graphics.
@@markjames8664 At the time, no, it wasn't. Now it is. :P
@@hyoenmadan Virtual machine would solve that one. ;)
@@markjames8664 huh? NT runs my games just fine.
hey!!! i have one of these floating around my parents' house! me and my dad love your channel and were thinking about sending it to you years ago, but it never came to be. even cooler now to see you doing a video on it!
This is literally one of the coolest thing I've ever seen. For it's time it seems incredibly useful
Absolutely wonderful walk down memory lane I forgot all about my Ironman Triathlon. Absolutely loved it worked wonderfully majority of the time. I now wonder if any of the issues I had when I first had it we're due to possible interference from lighting. Thank you for rekindling a memory
If you didn't grow up in the era, it might be hard to understand just how impressive and "futuristic" optical data recognition like this was on a consumer device, especially something as small as a watch.
I remember seeing articles and adds for this back in high school. Never seen one reviewed or in person. Thx for the video!
I LOVED this watch as teen. I had no use for it, really, but I loved it regardless. I was such a nerd.
Was? ;)
@@virus2003 Once a nerd, always nerd though it might not always be so evident!
I had one of these as a kid, I believe it was of the ironman variety. Used with windows 95 on a packard bell…Fun times, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I used mine until finally getting a smart phone, ('08 or 9?) and can confirm it did work with NT4.0 without the adapter. To be fair I probably had to run it in a mode emulating 95 or something; that much I cannot remember.
You got my like from that intro alone. WELL DONE SIR!!
Totally missed the chance to call this "odd wear"
I had one of these. I got it at the Microsoft store and I used it for a while. At some point, that watch had an issue that allowed me to take advantage of the warranty so I sent it back but got the USB version, which I still have but the band broke and was unique to the watch itself so now it just sits in a drawer. Around 2004ish, Microsoft was about to release their next version of Outlook. Since we were all using this "dogfood" version, I reached out to Timex to tell them their plugin didn't work but they'd didn't seem to care. I think that was probably the end of the life of those watches. It was a pretty cool thing to have back then and very useful.
the "[chuckes in paperwork]" closed caption made me lose it
Thank you, Clint, for the memories. I had the 150 as a teenager. It was quite massive and built like a tank, and the "apps" were nice too - things like a stopwatch or a timer
Absolutely fantastic ride down memory lane. Our IT guy had one of these in 1996. I remember being fascinated by it. The lines flashing on screen immediately recalled my sense memories of his office and the first time I watched him update the watch. I’m a watch freak now so your video tickled that obsession too. Thanks for the ride!
Very interesting. I had never heard of this technology, though I lived through that period.
I went to high school with a rich kid who had one of these as well as a watch with a docking station keyboard that could be used to put in calendar info as well as sync from a PC.
I came so close to using a week's pay from Kroger to buy one. Instead, I purchased Magic the Gathering cards that I wish I still had. I could probably retire off of them.
I owned a beepwear pro from tomex it was a watch with a beeper inside! I loved it! I purchased it when they first came out in when I was in highschool.. I remember syncing my contacts to it this same way.
I still remember getting my Casio Illuminator watch, felt so damn cool.
I had one of these watches! I completely forgot about these, so thank you for the reminder! Feeling very nostalgic.
Awesome watch, I never knew it existed. Imagine if they made a version with the phone dialer capability of a Casio DBA-80/800.
Finally came up to a video were I see the voice behind LGR!Great content!
Oh man! I remember mom had one of these!
@LGR i appreciate all your videos man, big fan from Eastern Europe even tho I did not catch the 90's and 80's a lot of the tech you showcase here we got in the 2000's so it's a fun trip down nostalgia lane for me, thank you for your hard work and keep it up.
I had one of the watches with integrated Pager. It was amazing back then, felt like something james bond would use. Battery life was…not good 😁. I replaced it with a mobile phone as they became more available and cheaper…
Just came across this video. Still have mine and use, the 75 and also have to 150 and the infrared adaptor. Still works a dream, just have to use on my old laptop that has a serial port :)
Dude! I had a Timex with that exact same strap but it wasn't very smart. It's big selling point was "Indigo" (said with a space echoey voice effect). Indigo was all the rage back then. The brown leather and dark turquoise strap is so reminiscent of that era.
Do you mean indiglo? The green light on the watch?
They called it ingigo because they used the brand spanking new indium tin oxide coating to make it efficient.
Did not know this existed! But totally appropriate for the era. Thanks for showing us how it worked!!
Ooh, this sounds like a really fun piece of tech. This entire era of digital watches gaining more and more features back then is immensely fascinating to me.
I had the Iron Man Triathlon Timex Datalink watch, and my dad had an earlier version of the Timex Datalink too. Brings back some heavy nostalgia. Honestly I think it's the best watch I've ever owned. Really good quality all round.
Sad that Casio never made a reissue from those amazing 80s Casio game watches. They are very expensive on ebay now.
It is a shame. The only consolation is the 65 per cent chance it would be a cheap, plastic emulated hunk of junk.
They would probably still sell these days too, the F91, data banks, and G-Shocks certainly never really stopped being popular
One of my faviourite watches, ever. I still use it sometimes, I kept a CRT monitor especially for it (never managed to source the so called "laptop adapter" at reasonable price). I also have a collection of mini-apps for it, including rudimentary Space Invaders 🙂
Oh, and it's official: it's the most accurate watch in my collection (and I have about 80), excluding those with radio sync, of course. I look at it right now and it's off 4 seconds - 2 years after I've last set it up...
I had one of the newer ones with the cable connection. It was nice for its time.
I still use one of those. I just like having a programmable watch with a battery lifetime measured in months...
Seeing Made in the Philippines electronic used by US market warms my heart. From Analog Devices, Texas Instrument, early Intel processors, to this. As always, great content.
I recall Microsoft of this era frequently showing off some weird "connected home" gadget that was interesting in concept, but far beyond practical in application, but I don't ever recall this watch being one of them. Perhaps the more practical gadget, at the leading edge of the days of PDAs, it's interesting that the packaging really speaks to who this is marketed to, as it's your run-of-the-mill 1990s software box rather than a watch package, which would actually let you see the watch inside.
I had also forgotten all about "Indiglo," another 1990s buzz-thing everyone talked about for a year or 2 then became commonplace or just passe. I recall people coming out to the observatory all excited to show off their new Indiglo watch.
Fun fact: Indiglo is literally a "buzz-thing". Press the watch onto your ear and turn on the Indiglo, you can hear a surprisingly loud buzzing - it is the switching voltage inverter stepping up the EL feed voltage, coil magnetically singing with the rhythm of the switching frequency. Applies also to EL lights with less buzzing trade names :)
When I was a kid my parents let me pick out a watch to buy, I chose this one. It was amazing. To be honest, I never used the datalink feature, mostly cause I didn't need to keep track of phone numbers, but it was still cool to show off. I had the Ironman one, very classic.
I'm really surprised at how this was pretty reasonably priced. I'd love to have something like this today just for the novelty
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Love it! Great vid
I had one of these! I always wondered how the data was encoded. It looks like a parallel 8-bit (with some sort of a frame bit) yet I always thought that the sensor on the watch looked like a simple phototransistor that wouldn't be able to see the individual lines.
It would be interesting to use one of those multi-input USB analyzing oscilloscopes connected to some phototransistors adhered to the right spots on the screen to see if the analyzer could decode the data.
Thanks for the memories, Clint!
It is just a photoresistor. It can "see" the individual lines because a CRT draws top to bottom and the lines fade out even before the next line is drawn. It's your eyes that trick you into it being a continuous image - that's an illusion. It's blinking like mad and it's that blinking the watch sees.
I used to have one of these. Love seeing it revisited. Wish I knew where mine went. Lack of support for LCDs certainly killed my continued use of this and I wasn't about to go buy an adapter when my cell phones started to get some of these features instead. Funny that I am moving back to a smart watch given their capabilities today. This was a great tech for it's time and with my poor memory it was a great supplement for remembering phone numbers, dates and appointments.