Seiko has squeezed a micro into a wrist-borne terminal that hooks up with your computer. Kenn Garroch gives it a wearer's test

In this age of ever smaller, ever more powerful microelectronics, Seiko has come up with what might be the final reduction - in size that is. The RC-1000 wrist terminal is a watch-like device that can be hooked up to a computer via an RS232 and have information downloaded to it.

Once in, that information can be used in a number of ways; to set up timed alarm signals, memos and world time zones for example. The terminal comes with software to run on your micro if you have a Commodore 64, BBC, Spectrum, Apple, Tandy Model 100, IBM PC or PX-8.

The Seiko radio link RS232 simply clips onto the back and allows you to collect a variety of computers.

The RC-1000 looks like any of the standard wrist watches available from the shops. The display consists of two rows of 12 characters which normally show the time, date, day, am/pm and alarm on/off. So far it's just a pretty sophisticated watch, apart from six buttons on the front labelled time, lock, alarm, select, terminal and set.

At the bottom of the box the RC-1000 comes in are two packages, one of which contains the interface lead, the other a disk and instruction manual. The review model had an interface and software for the Commodore 64. The software is also available on cassette for several machines and this costs about £10 less.

The whole system strikes me as one of those zany Japanese ideas like the tape recorder with three decks, a record player, television, video, musical keyboard, drum synthesiser, etc all built into one machine. That said, it could be pretty useful.

Getting the software started on the 64 was fairly straightforward. When the disk had loaded I was confronted with a fully menu-drive program that enabled me to set up alarms, memos, and world time zones.

Using the software was unusual rather than difficult. The menus were taken a little too far and I felt like I was controlling a watch where the number of keys was limited, not a computer with a full keyboard.

Perhaps this is just a personal preference but I think there is room for improvement.

After downloading a few dates and phone numbers, I started wearing the watch full time. The comments it drew ranged from 'gauche', this was from a Yuppie whom I ignored, to 'neat', from a gadget-freak friend of mine. The general consensus of opinion was that no-one could think of a use for it.

As a person who can't be bothered keeping a diary, I found it quite useful. Setting alarms for appointments, getting me out of bed and telling me when to finish work (I can't be the only one who forgets all these things!) worked quite well.

Up to 80 2 x 12 character screens can be held in the watch at any one time, and the software provides a complete filing system allowing a database to be set up and then modified as necessary. The idea seems to be that once you have your basic alarms, phone numbers and messages set up, all you will need to do is alter the more ephemeral ones once a week or so. It's as simple as that.

Downloading the information to the watch entails removing it from your wrist, attaching the clip to an RS232 interface and putting the watch into receive mode. Selecting download from the menu loads up the watch/terminal. Depending on how much information you are transferring this can take anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds.

Once the data is installed in the watch, it can be examined with the Terminal and Select/Step buttons on the front of the watch. Terminal steps through the various headings, the other two step through the information under the headings.

When any of the alarms go off, the message that goes with it is displayed on the watch face. Pressing any key stops the alarm and returns the watch to time mode. The alarm tone is a high pitched beep-beep-beep which just about penetrates the consciousness in the morning.

Two small manuals come with the RC-1000. The first tells you how to operate the watch and access all of the functions and displays. It is much the same as any other watch manual. The second covers using the software. Most of this seems to apply to Apple software, but there is a table giving the commands for other computers.

At the back of this booklet is a fold-out map of the world giving all of the time zones and the major cities in them.

What I expected to find, but couldn't, was any information on how the RS232 interface is controlled, and what protocols are needed to set up a system. This is a sad omission.

The RC-1000 may appear to be a little Mickey Mouse, but Seiko isn't aiming the wrist terminal at just the home market. There is software for the IBM PC, PX-8 and Tandy Model 100, so obviously the idea is to sell it to the professional market. Indeed, it is probably of more use to the high-flying business executive who has to be in several places at once than most other people. At £119 it is about the same price as many of the other up-market watches, so the additional features and software are quite reasonable. As a novelty, it's good, as a useful tool for the gadget-loving businessmen, it could become indispensable.

Features 4/5
Documentation 3/5
Performance 4/5
Overall value 3/5