Casio AT-552 Janus: 1984 Wristwatch with Touchscreen (Video)

In the era before pocket assistants, our hopes for a practical and effective portable device rested on watches. The major Japanese manufacturers squeezed that format to its limits, integrating functions that seemed impossible. A good example is the Casio AT-552 Janus. At first glance it doesn't convey much, but it has two tricks up its sleeve: a calculator mode and a touchscreen that recognizes gestures for entering numbers and operations.

There is hardly any doubt: wearables and smartwatches are bobbing like corks, with consumers rejecting the market's offerings for many reasons, but not all is lost for the format.

Perhaps it's time to acknowledge mistakes, look back, and seek inspiration from old ideas. Granted, not all of them proved useful, and today they're little more than curiosities; however, some developments were truly impressive. Take the case of the Casio AT-552 Janus.

Without additional details, anyone would think it's a cheap Chinese copy, but if you ever find one intact and working, don't let it go. Why? Watch this:

Casio AT-552 Janus: A Touchscreen Watch in 1984

Yes, the Casio AT-552 Janus is a watch with a touchscreen. Through a system of preprogrammed gestures, the user enters digits and operations into its built-in calculator. Technically, the screen is capacitive, and it's divided into cells connected by lines of conductive material that become visible when the watch is viewed at a specific angle (the second video shows this).

The problem with that design is that a scratch deeper than usual can cut those lines and disable the touch interface. That's why most Janus units available have the touch 'dead'. The rest of the modes are limited to date, time in '24-hour format', alarm, and stopwatch.

As we mentioned above, the gestures are preprogrammed. The manual teaches exactly how they must be made; otherwise, the Janus won't recognize them. For example, the number 8 is not drawn with the classic crossed design, but rather expects two circles.

Several portals advertise the Casio AT-552 Janus as an ultra-rare calculator watch, and that's an accurate expression. Besides finding one that works, it's also difficult to find one in good aesthetic condition...