Summary
Former PM Thatcher wanted Dundee to be a smart watch manufacturing hub in 1983. Timex owner predicted revolutionary wrist computers. Plans never materialized.
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Maggie’s smart watch vision for Scotland… 40 years ago
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher touted Dundee as a potential manufacturing hub for smart watches, newly released documents show.
Government correspondence from 1983 shows reclusive Norwegian billionaire Fred Olsen, the owner of the watch manufacturer Timex, had informed Mrs Thatcher that his company was on the cusp of a technological breakthrough.
In a private briefing for the then PM he claimed his firm would soon pioneer a ground-breaking concept: watches linked to computers and which had screens capable of showing moving images.
Pioneering: Smart watch
The revelation led Mrs Thatcher to urge Mr Olsen to choose Dundee as a base for research, development and production of what were referred to as ‘wrist computers’.
A briefing note from February 1983, seen by The Times, states: ‘Olsen predicts five years of difficulty before expansion.
‘Also he predicts a revolutionary development in timepieces towards what he calls a wrist instrument, bringing together watch, computer and possibly even flat-screen television technology.’
The note suggested there was potential for ‘technology not yet available anywhere in the world’ to be developed in Dundee.
Timex came to Dundee in 1946, starting with 11 employees in a converted farm building. By the 1970s it had grown to become Dundee’s biggest employer, with 5,000 people on its books.
Wrote letter: Mrs Thatcher
However, by the 1980s, demand for traditional mechanical watches had slumped and more than 1,000 workers were made redundant.
The decline prompted Mrs Thatcher to write: ‘Dundee has established a clear lead in the manufacture of computers.
I ask, therefore, to give consideration to establishing Dundee as the flagship of the Timex electronics business by giving Dundee key responsibility worldwide for research and development in this field.’
The proposals failed to materialise, with Timex leaving Dundee in 1993 after an industrial dispute.
