Commodore brand wasn't just on computers & typewriters

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AppropriateCap8891@reddit

I remember growing up and we had a Commodore filing cabinet.

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InfamousVersion163@reddit

I still own one of these. Build quality is still pretty good.

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Journ9er@reddit

My parents have one. It's in arm's reach of where I'm typing this right now.

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turnips64@reddit

Certainly faster and more hierarchy features than their 1541 filing system.

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That was kind of a compromise design in many ways. On paper, having their own independent CPU with a built-in disk controller and able to operate independently from the CPU would have made it faster. But using OTS components and the limitations of being backwards-compatible with the PET-CBM-VIC-20 in the end hampered the performance.

But one can not blame things like "Hierarchy features" on Commodore. CP/M did not allow that, nor did Apple or even MS-DOS (until MS-DOS 2.0).

One simply can not look decades into the past and point at a feature that while common today was almost unheard of at that time. The first OS for microcomputers that I can even remember that had file folders ("directories" as we called them then) was XENIX. Which was a MicroSoft Unix clone.

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turnips64@reddit

Yet the filing cabinets had hierarchical folders and tiers. Those guys in Scarborough were ahead of the game.

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SomePeopleCallMeJJ@reddit

I think that's why the PET had a metal case like it did. There were plans to do something fancier, probably manufactured by an outside firm, but Jack Tramiel was like, "Let's save money and have the division of the company that makes office furniture do the case!"

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Majestic-Tart8912@reddit

We have a couple in the office currently.

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sonicjesus@reddit

They were originally a clock company that moved onto watches, then used their technology to make adding machines and typewriters.

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This-Bug8771@reddit

They made calculators too

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3Cogs@reddit

The first pocket calculator I saw for real was a Commodore.

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riotz1@reddit

I’ve got one

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3Cogs@reddit

Very cool! Does it have that beautiful florescent green display?

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riotz1@reddit

No even better, it’s blue

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3Cogs@reddit

Almost turquoise with those hexagonal segments? That display was gorgeous, nearly 50 years since I saw that and I'm still impressed!

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riotz1@reddit

Yeah I was quite surprised, picked it up at some junk store years ago and figured it was either a green or red display like most others from that era and was surprised when I put a battery in and tried it out, nicest looking display I’d ever seen among calculators from that era..

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3Cogs@reddit

I wanted one so much back then. Unfortunately I was about 8 years old and a calculator was an expensive gadget.

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loctastic@reddit

I would like one of those

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rlauzon@reddit

I had one 30+ years ago. It was junk. I would be surprised if any survived until today.

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joerice1979@reddit

Why did I never have one of these?

I need an intervention to stop me going on eBay right now.

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LieboOSBA@reddit

I have a commodore watch.

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eldofever58@reddit

Yeah, Commodore had some -interesting- co-branding. I actually bought (just bc it’s so ridiculous) a desktop electromechanical adding machine (think it’s an Olivetti) with the C badge. They had some pocket calculators as well.

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Cross58Crash@reddit

SOME pocket calculators? Commodore made their initial fortune in calculators.

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eldofever58@reddit

I guess I could have been more clear. All those pocket calculators they made their fortune on were also re-branded, like the watches and other office equipment. It wasn't until the C64 era where they had their own chip foundry that they produced a design of their own.

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TygerTung@reddit

Yes those look exactly like Casio watches.

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Majestic-Tart8912@reddit

I have a Commodore pocket calculator and a Commodore LED watch. Both work. Also still fire up my breadbin C64 to play Impossible Mission.

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GeordieAl@reddit

I’m just outside Toronto and the local FB marketplace always has lots of Commodore products for sale… filing cabinets, desks, calculators, and typewriters. I’ve yet to see a watch for sale, but would probably buy one if i did!

I did see a Commodore branded rotary phone earlier this year for $20 which I wish I had bought!

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GuairdeanBeatha@reddit

I worked for a Commodore dealer in the 80s. We looked at selling the watches as a sideline. The watches were crap. The bands were only good for ripping hair out of your arm, and the displays died fairly quickly.

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zSmileyDudez@reddit

I have a Commodore filing cabinet down in my basement that I saved from an office demo years ago. I’m not a huge Commodore fan, but didn’t want to see it go to the dump.

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LordSesshomaru82@reddit

I've got a Commodore US*4 calculator somewhere. AFAIK they also made office furniture.

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Stoney3K@reddit

Those look like they're just rebranded Casio watches?

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Disastrous-Year571@reddit

Commodore starred making watches in 1975, when it was a calculator company, not a computer maker. (The Hamilton Pulsar was the first digital watch, in 1972.) Commodore actually did manufacture their watches, initially out in Palo Alto. Its first computers, the KIM-1 and PET, were made in 1976 and 1977, after the watches debuted.

When this ad ran, 1981, Commodore was just about to stop with watches because by then they were mass market commodities - the company brought some to CES but people were not interested.

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jcGyo@reddit

Just correcting a minor thing here, the Pulsar was the first electronic digital watch, mechanical digital watches were invented in the late 1920s. Here's a mechanical digital watch, if you're curious

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

I'm sure they are. Lots of brands slap their names on others' products. I doubt these were made by Commodore, though that would be pretty neat.

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AntiquesForGeeks@reddit

New Commodore doing a watch would be quite interesting, but only if that was their own design rather than a rebadge of an existing product. I suspect however that the margin would not justify the investment, unless it was a high-end timepiece which frankly the Commodore brand would not lean itself to.

As a historical artefact, this advert is cool!