This was the first Apple Watch, and it worked with any smartphone

Apple Watch
It even tells the time

Unless you're a tech enthusiast of a certain age you might have completely missed this one: the first official Apple Watch was actually launched in 1995, two decades before the shiny timepiece arriving this March.

Thanks to the TLD YouTube channel for jogging our memories and showing off the device, which was not sold separately but came as a free gift to tempt users into upgrading to Macintosh System 7.5.

There's no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi here, no smartphone syncing, no touchscreen and no voice control. All you get is a blue metallic finish, the old rainbow-coloured Apple logo, and Mac OS lettering embedded on the strap. And the time.

Design language

Other notable features of the first Apple Watch include a blue metallic finish and a wavy second hand that looks very Disney. Some entrepreneurial types are selling the watches for $99-129 (roughly £65-85 or AU$120-157) but they seem to be sold out right now.

TLD takes the time to show off the rediscovered Apple Watch to a few friends. "It looks kinda neat" and "I like the colours" are a couple of the most positive comments that the watch manages to attract. "It's just a watch," points out one very astute observer.

"You can tell that the [Apple] design language permeates through the whole ecosystem," enthuses one reviewer, which just goes to show that almost anything Apple makes is guaranteed to find a band of supporters somewhere.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.