The Apple Watch may admittedly feel a big sluggish at times, but the device’s internals – 520 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage – are more impressive than what many old PCs were running back in the early to mid 90s. That being the case, developer Nick Lee recently took it upon himself to see if he could get Microsoft’s seminal Windows release – Windows 95 – up and running on the Apple Watch.
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Was Lee able to complete the task? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes, but the process naturally involved a fair amount of tinkering to a WatchKit app so that he could load his “own application code rather than Apple’s.” The end result was that Lee effectively managed to turn Windows 95 into a pseudo Apple Watch app.
Once Windows 95 was loaded onto the Apple Watch, the booting process took an hour because it’s being emulated rather than virtualized. Lee also had to attach a straw to a small motor that nudged the Digital Crown periodically to keep the Watch awake. Once the Watch is all booted up and ready, users can control the mouse with their finger. However, because the emulation is so slow, Lee told MacRumors that “it only registers a few pixels per movement on the screen.” To combat the lack of speed users can queue up commands by rapidly swiping on the display.
So while this is clearly not something anyone would ever want to use, it’s still a pretty cool proof of concept.
A video showcasing what Windows 95 running on an Apple Watch looks like can be seen below.
