Seiko RC4000 and RC4400

[simone]

Thanks Simone,
Indeed Seiko D031 is an amazing watch, and the MSRP(manufacturer's suggested retail price) price was about 495 USD when it appeared . But it was a breakthrough product - literally a real '''proof-of-concept" for the technology of dot-matrix displays - that allowed soon after the Japanese High-Tech companies to do other amazing things with this - now proven to work - dot-matrix display technology, as I may show in my future review of this watch.
Best regards,

Totaly agree,and my Casio VDB 1000 (1991) is a proof...a big dot matrix full graphical lcd panel

[cybr]

Thanks to Mr. Seiko Kid , I have received the old communication software for the Seiko RC 4000/4400 watch, written in BASIC language in 1984.
And I made it to work in a VMWare/Windows 98 environment on a Win 7 64 bit OS with few tricks, as one may see in the picture below.
Please let me know if You need a tutorial how to make it work.
Regards,

[cybr]

Wow...the program written in BASIC in 1984/1985 even has a nice RC 4000 watch emulated in the first screen of the software (working!!! in the sync with the clock of the Virtual Machine), as one may see below, in the screen capture
Nice programming skills...in the "primitive" BASIC language... and in 1985!

[cybr]

Documenting and analysing the outstanding Seiko RC 4400 I had another BIG surprise!!!
And I want to share this surprise with You, BUT in the form of a small riddle:
So the question/riddle is: What do You think that those two (HINT: quite different, but also quite revolutionary!) items from early-mid 80's - presented in the photo below - MAY HAVE IN COMMON???
(the correct answer will be in my next post, if nobody will present the right answer)

[Kasper]

it was present in the cockpit of the formule 1 to keep laptimes ?

[cybr]

Thanks Kasper for trying,
but NO, such an answer it would have been just too simple and may seem obvious, but it's not the correct one!
Best regards,

[simone]

Mmmm,seems to be Mario Andretti on board....

[cybr]

Thanks Simone,
It seems that You have a good knowledge of F1 history, but this particular racing car (which has something quite revolutionary in common with the Seiko RC 4400! ) was driven by John Watson.
And another hint, for F1 fans: the same F1 racing car was driven also by the Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris
Regards,

[simone]

Uhh,the helment reminds me Mario Andretti in early 80's

Now my doubt: John Watson drove the McLaren only in 1981 and the car (McLaren MP4/1) was used from 1981 to 1983...So i can't understand the connection between the car and the Seiko (released in 1985)

[cybr]

Congrats Simone,
You are a real F1 fan! You were almost there, but yet not close enough...
And now the answer:
The car is indeed the FAMOUS and revolutionary Mclaren MP4/1 from 1981 - - It was the first Formula One car to use a carbon fiber composite monocoque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_MP4/1

And look now at the case back of the 1985 - Seiko RC 4400 in the photo below:
We may talk here about THE FIRST WATCH in the WORLD (1985) that had CARBON FIBER PLASTIC used to make its case - a very expensive and breakthrough technology back than:
So what those 2 items (McLaren MP4/1 and Seiko RC 4400) HAD IN COMMON, is that for both the very expensive and quite hard to shape CARBON FIBER PLASTIC/POLYMERS have been used for the monocoque/case, probably for THE FIRST TIME IN THE WORLD - in their field!!!)

"Carbon fiber reinforced polymer, carbon fiber reinforced plastic or carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP or often simply carbon fiber, or even carbon), is an extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastic which contains carbon fibers. The spelling 'fibre' is common in British Commonwealth countries.
CFRPs can be expensive to produce but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and rigidity are required, such as aerospace, automotive, civil engineering, sports goods and an increasing number of other consumer and technical applications."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_fi ... ed_polymer

NOTE: Please do not confuse Carbon Fiber Plastics (CRP) with other materials used before 1985 (so before the Seiko RC 4400!) to produce "high-tech"/sport watch cases, such as NORYL (polyphenylene ether and polystyrene), DELRIN (Polyoxymethylene) etc...or even plain Fiberglass!!!
CRP has a much higher strength-to-weight ratio and it is a very expensive material and quite difficult to be shaped!!!
Even today, most of the modern Watches made with Carbon Fiber Cases are usually quite expensive, as one may see on the URL below
https://www.revolution.watch/5-f1-teams ... e-watches/
http://www.hautetime.com/4-brands-that- ... ase/81809/


Regards,

[fleseriutiberiu]

Hi Cybr,

Would it be possible for you to send me the software for the RC4000/4400, I also have a couple of these watches and want to hook them up to an older PC. If Mr Seiko Kid is fine with you sending them on to me of course.

Kind regards,
Tibi

[cybr]

Done, as long as You will mention Seikokid as the provider of the software, and the use of GWBASIC environment (with some tricks!) to be able to run the software on much modern computers... :))
Regards and thanks for Your outstanding Youtube channel... I have to say that is NO OTHER like YOURS!
Thanks again for all your knowledge displayed online for everybody!

[cybr]

Hi all,
Finally, my recently acquired Seiko RC 4000, boxed + original Seiko Cable and IBM compatible/MS-DOS software has arrived.
Unfortunately, it has not the original Seiko dock for the RC 4000, thus the cable may be used only with my other Seiko RC 4400, previously presented here.
The package content:


The caseback of the watch, showing the manufacturing date: August, 1985


One may read an interesting review of these early "smartwatches" below:
"Seiko Computer Watch Fun"
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/2005/07/
Regards,