Natty wrist-watch gadget-thingy made by Timex. Point it at your monitor and it can receive data in the form of flashing barcode-esque lines.

Only works with monitor displays or a laptop dongle. There's a web-ring 'out there' chok full of Timex DataLink developers clicking away to create the next great minimal functionality application.
Beaten into a cocked hat by a REX or a mobile phone but a good idea at the time.

I actually had one of these, a rescued castoff from my early-adopter-syndrome father. Its ability to download phone numbers and appointments from an animated barcode was rarely, if ever, useful. Being a teenager at the time, I did note that the function to store a block of text could possibly be used to cheat at exams; I never needed it.

Its greatest virtue, though, was that it was a tank - a big block of milled steel with a nigh-unscratchable face. I wore that watch on archaeological digs and, later, while doing stonemasonry; it survived trips into the River Thames, two feet of thick mud filled with rusty iron scrap, a bucket of lime putty, photographic chemicals. You'd barely know what it's been through just by looking. Never before or since has so little processing power been protected by so much heavy armour.

In the end I decided I needed something more elegant. The visible clockwork of a pocket watch may be less tough, but it is exposed to far fewer dangers.

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