ABSTRACT
Sony Corp'.s Watchman the first pocket television set, released in 1982 was the hottest novelty product during that year's Christmas season. Margot Rogoff, a spokeswoman for New York's Bloomingdale's, noted, 'It's been the most talked-about item in the store'. Only eight inches long, 1.4 inches thick, and 3 1/2 inches wide about the size of a box of Cracker Jack the Watchman fit easily into a coat pocket. In addition, the Watchman could only pull in signals in metropolitan areas which had broadcasting stations in the nearby vicinity. Sony engineers, however, worked out a means of bouncing the electron beam so that it struck the screen from the side, permitting a significant reduction in size. Despite its initial success, the Watchman and a host of models issued shortly thereafter by competitors failed to equal the popularity of its antecedent in the audio field, the Walkman cassette player.
