BACK IN YE OLDE 1986, donning a digital timepiece could get you in a bunch of trouble w/ your schoolmarm. It was all this one kid’s fault–Brian or Ryan, I forget. Brian/Ryan was a deal in a sort of hyperactive, scary, smartass way. He was always eating Pop-Tarts and talking about video games no one had yet. And he’d cheat on math tests because his watch had a calculator on it.

Solar calculators were already pretty much the shiz in ye olde days, so a watch that doubled as a calculator was the craziest technology post-Etch-a-Sketch we’d ever heard of. We were leery of scary Brian/Ryan, but duly impressed. Teachers were not, however, and dude had to do without his watch. Shucks.

3 WATCH FACTOIDS:

1. Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher, was the first person to wear a wrist watch–he just took a piece of string and knotted his pocket watch to his arm. Handy dude.
2. The first mechanical digital pocket watches showed up in the 1920s.
3. The first electronic digital watch, a Pulsar LED protoype, was crafted in the Hello-Hal style of 2001: A Space Odessey’s digital clock. Guess how much it cost? $2,100. No joke.

We’ve all come a long way since Brian/Ryan. And so have digital watches. Here are 7 pieces of retro-inspired arm candy for your viewing pleasure.

1. ADIDAS ADH4057 TAIPEI DIGITAL

2. KR3W THE HALO

3. TIMEX EXPEDITION

4. NIXON NEWTON DIGITAL

5. NIXON UNIT

6. NOOKA UNISEX ZOO-AL-OR ZOO

7. O.D.M. JC01-12 JCDC POP HOURS SERIES

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