The Sony Watchman was a must-have TV

To understand the Sony Watchman, you have to go back. A long time ago. Back when “TV” wasn’t just a way to refer to any content between 20 and 89 minutes, available on screens everywhere for a few dollars a month. In 1982, when Sony began selling its new device, “television” was a piece of furniture. It was probably huge and often made largely of wood. Sony helped change all that.

For this episode of Version historywe take up the whole story of the Watchman. David Pierce, Allison Johnson, and Victoria Song begin with the story of the Walkman (although that’s another episode in itself), which was for all intents and purposes the first truly mainstream, truly portable music player. Walking down the street listening to music was a cultural revolution and made Sony an even bigger gadget maker.

The Watchman wasn’t the first portable TV—news junkies everywhere owned devices from Casio, Sinclair, and others intended to “keep you informed while you’re on the move”—but it featured some smart improvements over the competition. The most important was the flat-panel picture tube, which took traditional CRT display technology and transformed it into a much smaller form. This still required a fairly large pocket, but you could manage to hide the item in a church pew or at a business meeting. And thanks to the continued rise of television, there was always something to watch. And that’s what people did.

In the end, Watchman lasted almost two decades, but you know how the story ended. No one owns a “portable TV” anymore, and in fact, Sony lost the race long before the smartphone came along. But in its heyday, Sony’s portable display was a big deal. It also raised questions about social isolation and what would happen if we filled the world with screens, which we still struggle with today. For better or worse, the world has never gone back.

This is the third episode of Version history. (The first two were about hoverboards and BBM). If you want to catch the show, there are three good places to go:

Thanks to everyone who has already watched or listened to the show and sent in their comments! We’re already working hard on the next set of episodes and want to hear anything you think we should or shouldn’t do or do differently. Seriously, tell us how to decide what constitutes the Hall of Fame. In the meantime, if you want to dive into Watchman as deep as we did, here are some links to get you started: