It’s slow, not practical in the slightest and it takes an hour to boot up, but it’s also incredibly cool.
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Obviously, it isn’t normally possible to run arbitrary code on an Apple Watch; the developer explains the necessary steps and workarounds he had to use in the blog post. Touch controls vaguely work and it technically tells time still, just in the itsy bitsy bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Though it looks a bit like he’s swiping around, Lee says that he altered the Watch’s software to let Windows 95 track a single fingertip, allowing the mouse to be moved by tapping where he wants it to go. Now, he’s able to fit that $3,000 technology into a computer on his wrist, even if it’s not all that effective.
In a detailed post on Medium, Lee notes that the 520 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 8GB of storage in the Watch put it well beyond the specs of a typical Windows 95 PC from over a decade ago.
But of course, the ability to run aged Redmond operating systems on a Watch was probably not at the top of the Apple dev team’s feature list, so [Nick] had to jump through quite a few hoops to achieve it.
He also can’t really wear the watch. In a video that Lee uploaded, it can be seen that he accesses the start menu of the operating system and loads a program. To deal with that, he set up a motorized tube that constantly turns the Watch’s crown, preventing it from falling asleep.
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What happens if the slick user interface and tight iOS integration of your Apple Watch leave you wanting more?
