Did it happen in 2004 or 2024?

Microsoft released the SPOT watch — short for “smart personal object technology.” Given that you don’t hear that acronym much anymore, you can probably guess that the watch never took off, despite the fanfare over the device’s ability to read headlines, send instant messages, and give weather forecasts. The SPOT watch also wasn’t even the company’s first attempt at a smartwatch: as early as 1994, it partnered with Timex to release the Datalink, arguably the world’s first smartwatch. But here in 2024, it’s been a while since Microsoft tried to make wristwear happen.