The 1983 quest to shrink the television into a wristwatch

Nature · Published 30 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Watch how engineers in the early 1980s attempted to defy the physical bulk of cathode ray tubes to create portable, flat-screen displays.

In this 1983 broadcast of Tomorrow's World, Peter Macann explores two primary paths toward miniaturized television: mechanical ingenuity and new materials. To bypass the inherent size of traditional cathode ray tubes, one prototype placed the tube to the side of the screen, bending electrons onto a tiny phosphor surface.

The footage also highlights the rise of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which were favored for being less power-hungry than their predecessors. These technologies powered everything from handheld video games and portable oscilloscopes to an ambitious Japanese prototype of a wristwatch TV.

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