HP-01
Encyclopedia
The Hewlett-Packard HP-01 is the only calculator wristwatch ever manufactured and sold to the public by Hewlett-Packard
. The HP-01 used light-emitting diode
s (LEDs) for its digital display. Introduced in 1977 at the height of the LED watch craze, five models were available, two gold filled models and three stainless models. Prices were from $650 to $850
which was quite a lot of money back in 1977. Most of the 28 buttons on the HP-01 were recessed and were designed to be depressed with a stylus.
The production was stopped by end of 1979.
The HP-01 was unique not only as the only Hewlett-Packard watch but due to these unique features:
Units of this wristwatch sometimes appear for sale on ebay on good working conditions and get bids for up to $5000 or even higher.
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. The HP-01 used light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
s (LEDs) for its digital display. Introduced in 1977 at the height of the LED watch craze, five models were available, two gold filled models and three stainless models. Prices were from $650 to $850
which was quite a lot of money back in 1977. Most of the 28 buttons on the HP-01 were recessed and were designed to be depressed with a stylus.
The production was stopped by end of 1979.
The HP-01 was unique not only as the only Hewlett-Packard watch but due to these unique features:
- Datatype for time, date, and time interval, and the ability to perform mathematics on these datatypes.
- A stopwatch that allows the stopwatch time to be multiplied or divided by a constant, and continuously display the results. This was referred to as a "Dynamic Rate Calculation."
- The HP-01 was Hewlett-Packard's first algebraic calculator. Prior to the HP-01, all Hewlett-Packard calculators used Reverse Polish notationReverse Polish notationReverse Polish notation is a mathematical notation wherein every operator follows all of its operands, in contrast to Polish notation, which puts the operator in the prefix position. It is also known as Postfix notation and is parenthesis-free as long as operator arities are fixed...
. In later years,some HP calculators used a mixture of both.
Units of this wristwatch sometimes appear for sale on ebay on good working conditions and get bids for up to $5000 or even higher.