This Watch Puts Windows 98 on Your Wrist

If you miss the days of Windows 98, you’re not alone. Looking to spark some computing nostalgia, Michael Darby (aka 314REACTOR) decided to boot the old OS on a DIY smartwatch.

Bringing this “wrist-wearable dream PC” to life required the help of a Raspberry Pi along with a 2.4" TFT touchscreen, a 1000mAh LiPo battery, a PowerBoost 500C, and a simple on/off switch. The cyberpunkish device is operated by five buttons on top.

Seeing as though Windows 98 isn’t readily available for Raspberry Pi, 314REACTOR used the open source machine emulator QEMU. When all was said and done, he managed to get Minesweeper and the iconic Flying Windows screensaver up and running on his watch, albeit unbearably slow.

I also love emulation, the idea of running an operating system on virtual hardware? That’s awesome. It’s like the Matrix, or something. On top of this I love wearable/small tech and nowadays I have the ability to make things like this. So I thought, wouldn’t it be ridiculous and awesome to have Windows 98 on my wrist?

You can check out 314REACTOR’s entire build — including instructions and code — on his website and follow along with his Reddit thread here.