{"id":479377,"date":"2026-02-16T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479377\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:20:11","slug":"modern-smartwatches-lost-something-and-a-seiko-from-1994-reminded-me-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479377\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern smartwatches lost something \u2014 and a Seiko from 1994 reminded me what"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t love modern smartwatches<\/a> anymore, but that wasn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n

As a child of the 1980s and 1990s, I was obsessed with the idea of a computer on my wrist.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t surrounded by smartphones, and daily screen time consisted of an Apple II at school and my Intel 386 PC compatible desktop at home \u2014 hardly a match for the devices we\u2019re flooded with today.<\/p>\n

Smartphones changed everything, and I no longer see the appeal of yet another screen demanding my attention.<\/p>\n

I recently started wearing a Seiko MessageWatch from 1994. It was outstanding for its time, and I was lucky enough to use one back when the service was active.<\/p>\n

Putting it back on my wrist has been an excellent reminder that tech doesn\u2019t need to be this way, and it\u2019s why I\u2019m looking forward to a different kind of wearable in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tI double-wristed all weekend, and don’t regret a minute of it
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

You’ve got two wrists, so use them<\/p>\n

What the Seiko MessageWatch originally offered<\/p>\n

Set information at a glance<\/p>\n

\"Seiko<\/p>\n

Around $275 back in the 1990s scored you a Seiko MessageWatch.<\/p>\n

Several variants were offered, each with different cases and bands. The general technology and service remained the same, but you could buy a watch that best fit your tastes.<\/p>\n

From the outside, it looks like an unassuming Seiko quartz watch, which is precisely what enabled me to get away with wearing one in middle school.<\/p>\n

A Los Angeles Times article from the period perfectly outlines what was offered<\/a>. For a few dollars a month, you got a simple weather report twice a day, and the stock market closes for the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P 500.<\/p>\n

I remember loving the lottery results as a kid, and I\u2019d tell my father so we didn\u2019t have to go to the store to check our tickets.<\/p>\n

Sports scores were also a thrill. I got all the NY local sports teams, which, given the sheer number of franchises we have in the area, made my watch feel like a scrolling ESPN feed.<\/p>\n

Unlike Microsoft\u2019s WristNet a few years later (which I also used), the sports teams and weather reports you received were based on the signal your watch picked up.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t much customization aside from the package you ordered. If you live on one of the coasts, you got a wave report. Later on, users in mountainous regions received a ski report. An extra $9 a month meant your MessageWatch could act as a pager.<\/p>\n

I remember being alarmed in 8th grade when I was paged from a random wrong number, wondering if the alert would expose me for wearing a beeper in class.<\/p>\n

How the MessageWatch functioned<\/p>\n

No Bluetooth or Wi-Fi available<\/p>\n

\"Metal<\/p>\n

The MessageWatch service existed before Bluetooth and Wi-Fi were readily available, yet there had to be some way to get information to your watch \u2014 and it certainly wasn\u2019t coming from my Nokia 5125.<\/p>\n

It used an FM sub-carrier signal. From what I understood at the time, the same FM wave that brought your favorite music station also delivered information to your watch.<\/p>\n

Every MessageWatch had a large metal strip inside the band that served as an antenna.<\/p>\n

You could set the time manually, but as long as you received a signal, it synced automatically. If you changed time zones, it would switch to whichever signal it was receiving, so you never had to manually adjust your time when flying to a supported city.<\/p>\n

\"Dual<\/p>\n

As a regular quartz watch, it still works fine. It can track two time zones and includes an alarm function. I replaced the CR2025 battery myself, and I\u2019ve been wearing it ever since.<\/p>\n

If you never had one back in the day, you\u2019d think it was just a regular Seiko with the worst LED light you\u2019ve ever seen. But when I look down, I remember what was.<\/p>\n

The Seiko MessageWatch has me excited about the future<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait for my Pebble Time 2<\/p>\n

\"Seiko<\/p>\n

I love wearing the MessageWatch because it reminds me of a time when there was passive connectivity.<\/p>\n

I got the information I wanted on my wrist, but I wasn\u2019t expected to respond or engage. I was connected, but I wasn\u2019t beholden \u2014 and that\u2019s a significant difference that we\u2019ve lost in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"A
\n Credit:\u00a0Pebble<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why I\u2019m so excited to receive my Pebble Time 2<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019ll have apps, a color touchscreen, and the ability to connect to my phone. But, like the original Pebble, it feels purpose-built, and it\u2019s much more akin to the MessageWatch from the mid-1990s than to behemoths like the Galaxy Watch Ultra.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s naive to think I could ever truly go back to a period where connectivity is optional, but clawing back even a little of that is refreshing.<\/p>\n

2026 is already looking up<\/p>\n

I said this was going to be a theme of mine this year, and I keep being proven right.<\/p>\n

The Clicks Communicator<\/a> and Unihertz Titan 2 Elite are fantastic keyboard phones that I can\u2019t wait to use, and I\u2019m looking forward to pairing them with my Pebble Time 2. <\/p>\n

Modern smartphones aren\u2019t the root of all problems, and there are definitely advantages for consumers of having a one-stop-shop device for their computing, camera, and communication needs.<\/p>\n

Still, I love that there are other options for the rest of us who want a bit more variety in our tech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I don\u2019t love modern smartwatches anymore, but that wasn\u2019t always the case. As a child of the 1980s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-479377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}