Sony Watchman FD-20

In 1982, a television was still a piece of furniture. Then Sony introduced the Watchman, and suddenly you could watch the news on your commute.

The FD-20 was part of the second generation of Watchman models, released around 1983-84, refining the revolutionary concept Sony had introduced with the original FD-210. Its two-inch black and white screen seems impossibly small by modern standards, but getting any picture at all into something this slim required extraordinary engineering. The secret was Sony's flat CRT - a cathode ray tube with the electron gun mounted at 90 degrees to the screen, firing sideways across a curved phosphor surface. This rotated architecture was the only way to make a CRT thin enough to fit in your pocket.

The name was a portmanteau - "Watch" from watching television, "man" from the Walkman that had transformed portable audio three years earlier. Sony was betting they could do for television what they'd done for music. The Watchman line would run for almost two decades, spawning over 65 models before LCD technology and digital broadcasting finally made the concept obsolete. But in the mid-1980s, pulling this silver rectangle from your jacket and tuning into live television felt like science fiction made real.

Gizmo is a collection of design-led art prints built around the machines that shaped how we made music, wrote code, played and connected with the world. Synthesisers and drum machines. Cameras and home computers. Calculators and handheld devices that once felt like the future.

Each print is a carefully constructed illustration that isolates what made an object memorable - its proportions, controls, typography, surfaces, and small acts of engineering intelligence. Not retro sentimentality, but honest observation: what made these machines distinctive, how they looked when they were new, and why their forms still resonate.

Adapted from and inspired by Simon Tyler's forthcoming book Gizmo: Retro-Tech We Loved and Lost, published by Laurence King in May 2026.

All prints are produced to order on 250gsm archival matte paper using pigment-based inks, chosen for colour accuracy and long-term stability.

Each print is rolled in acid-free tissue and shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, sealed for moisture protection, ready for framing on arrival.

Large · 50 × 70 cm · 20 × 28 in

XLarge · 70 × 100 cm · 28 × 40 in

UK: Free · 3-5 working days

Europe: €8.50 · 3-7 working days · No customs charges

USA & Canada: $8.95 / $12.00 CAD · 5-10 working days

Australia: $14.00 AUD · 5-10 working days

Rest of World: £14.95 · 7-14 working days

All prints are produced to order and dispatched within 1-3 working days. Orders placed before 5pm GMT ship the same day. You'll receive tracking information by email once dispatched.

Orders outside Europe may be subject to local customs charges on delivery - these are the responsibility of the recipient.

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Returns accepted within 30 days. Email returns@axisophy.com with your order number and we'll provide return instructions.

Return postage is the customer's responsibility except where the print arrives damaged or there's been an error - in which case we'll arrange a replacement or refund immediately, no return needed.

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