Guest Post by Logan Strain (@LM_Strain)
Logan’s History Of Wearables infographic tracks the development of wearable technology from the Hamilton Pulsar to Oculus Rift. It reveals that the road to the wearable age was filled with big breakthroughs and some pretty silly devices.
Like this one:
Seemingly overnight, wearables have become as common as smartphones. People use trackers to monitor their fitness, their productivity, and even their travel. But the journey to a world where your every heartbeat and step are carefully logged is actually decades in the making.
It all started in the ‘70s with the release of the very first digital watch. It was called the Hamilton Pulsar Digital Watch, and was quickly followed by the very first wrist calculator by the same manufacturer. It was extremely pricey and you had to hold down a button in order to see the time glow in bright red numbers, but it was intriguing enough to be worn by President Gerald Ford.
Through the decades, manufacturers have attempted to create devices worn on the body. Almost all of them were failures. But starting in the 2000s, as the technology got better and companies got smarter, some hits emerged. Devices like the FitBit and Apple Watch began appearing on the wrists of everyone who wanted to monitor their activity and have 24/7 access to the information.
* Originally appeared in WearableZone.
Logan Strain is a technology writer specializing in brand strategy, online reputation management and social media.
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