{"id":971,"date":"2023-09-10T09:39:45","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T09:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/?p=971"},"modified":"2025-12-23T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T10:41:22","slug":"matsucom-onhand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/index.php\/matsucom-onhand\/","title":{"rendered":"Matsucom onHand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"onHand\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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One of the more unusual devices in my collection is the on<\/em>Hand – one of the first watches considered to be a Smartwatch. It was released in the USA by the Japanese company Matsucom, released in 1998 and I imported it in 2003. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The on<\/em>Hand was distributed in the US by Matsucom as the successor to the Ruputer, developed by Seiko. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ruputer was only distributed in Korea. It came in three flavours: 512KB storage, 2MB and 4MB. The on<\/em>Hand only came in 2MB, but two colours – black and transparent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The screen on the on<\/em>Hand is a physically reasonable 1.75″ LCD, supposedly with 4 shades of grey, but I can see no sign of that. It has an elecroluminescent backlight, which it tries to keep on only to a minimum (as that really drains the batteries).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution is only 102×64 pixels, which isn’t great. You can easily see the individual pixels (even with by ageing eyes).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Input on the device is through 4 buttons and a 4-way joystick. The buttons are allocated as Filer\/Time, Enter, EL and Menu. As you’d expect Enter confirms actions and Menu brings up a menu. EL always energises the electroluminescent backlight and Filter\/Time switches between various modes (more under Software below).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"onHand\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"onHand\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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On the left side, you find a set of three metal pads where the docking cradle attaches. This provides a standard RS-232 9-pin connector but there is no external power input from it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The top of the on<\/em>Hand is where you will find an infrared window. The device has the ability to communicate over xmodem or IrDA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"onHand\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The on<\/em>Hand is powered by two CR2025 batteries inserted through a twist-off cap on the back. The manual claims that you can get up to three months out of a set as long as you have the screen set to timeout when it’s not being used (i.e. not having an always-on clock).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internet tells me that you can fit CR2032 batteries in the on<\/em>Hand and increase the available run time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Included with the on<\/em>Hand is a docking cradle. The watch sits inside it and it connects to the contacts on the left hand side. This provides RS-232 serial communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Software is included on CD to allow external input of data and synchronisation with Outlook, Palm desktop and others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n