The original digital watch button foretold the battery life struggle of modern smartwatches

In hindsight, it sounds almost ridiculous. An expensive watch with technology that’s never been put on your wrist before that costs hundreds of dollars more than a traditional timepiece. And get this: this fancy, futuristic gadget can’t even continuously show the time.

No, I’m not talking about the original Apple Watch. I’m talking about the Pulsar Time Computer, the first commercially sold digital watch, which was released back in the 1970s by Hamilton. But despite the 50-year difference, the Pulsar foretold the same issues that we still struggle with today on our modern smartwatches — and fixed them the way we do, too: with a button.

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