Early Wearables: Bling Bling Gambling

When tracing the history of wearables one must excavate when technology begins to be adorned on the body. The first example, the wind up clock, makes its way from being worn on a chain around the neck (for women) or on a pocket chain (for men) to the first wristwatch introduced in Geneva, Switzerland, by the watchmakers Jacquet-Droz and Leschet (1790). Interestingly, the fashion of watches fixed on a bracelet was practiced exclusively by women during its first 100 years. These watches were considered too small to read time properly and too fragile to regulate time correctly, and hence were worn as novelty status symbols, or 18th century ‘bling’. The watch only enters the man’s wardrobe staple during the World War II where it is more pragmatically re-designed for men in active service. The second example. the first wearable computer, is Edward O. Thorp’s, MIT mathematician and “Beat the Dealer” author, toe-operated cigarette-pack size wearable analog device created for analyzing real-time data to beat roulette machines. Developed in collaboration with Claude Shannon, the godfather of information theory, the history of field testing the devices in Las Vegas and Reno is filled with costumes, props and performative ingenuity in order to maintain covert research. Who knew the history of wearables could be so risqué?