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The Vergecast

Version History: Sony Watchman

The Vergecast

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Tech News, Technology

4.44.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

1982's coolest gadget was the Sony Watchman portable TV. Decades before everyone was glued to YouTube on their smartphones, the Watchman popularized the concept of video on the go. In the early days of the personal-tech revolution, you’d find the Watchman antennas up everywhere from the church pew to the baseball bleacher. Victoria Song and Allison Johnson join David Pierce to dive into the engineering feat that made the first Watchman possible. If you like the show, ⁠subscribe to the Version History feed⁠ to make sure you get every new episode. Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Vergecast.

0:01.2

I'm your friend David Pierce, and you're about to hear another episode of our new show, version history. Before we get into it, one reminder, send us all of your feedback about the show. Everything you like, everything you don't like, everything we should do differently. And most importantly, go subscribe to version history, wherever you get podcasts, because it will not be on this feed forever. Let's get into it. In the early 1980s, two things were probably true about

0:22.6

your TV. One, it was enormous. And two, it was at your house. They were in family rooms, in TV

0:29.4

rooms. It was a place that you went to watch TV. But what if you're at church and you'd rather

0:34.1

be watching the baseball game? Or what if you're at your kids' baseball game and you'd rather watch, frankly, anything else at all?

0:40.6

Well, Sony, maker of the Walkman,

0:42.8

changer of the way that we all listen to music,

0:45.1

has something for you.

0:46.3

It's called The Watchman,

0:47.5

and it brings your TV absolutely anywhere.

0:50.7

From the Virgin Vox Media, this is version history,

0:52.8

a show about the best and worst and strangest and most important products in tech history.

0:58.6

Today, we are talking about The Watchman, the biggest portable TV you've maybe ever seen, but also kind of the future of TV.

1:07.1

Stay tuned.

1:19.6

The world is changing faster than ever.

1:24.4

Now, with The Economist Insider, a new premium video offering, we're giving you unprecedented access to the debates shaping our world.

1:27.0

I have set around that table at NATO.

1:29.0

There is an incoming missile attack now.

1:31.5

Could you answer the question? I'm sorry. We've got great little time left.

1:33.8

With a few surprises along the way.

1:35.6

I can't promise we'll have a cocktail every time, but we'll try.

1:38.6

So don't just be an economist reader.

...

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