History
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Above is a WatchCam photograph of... a WatchCam, circa 1886. It is, to be precise, Lancaster's Patent Watch Camera - a miniature camera built into the shell of a full hunter pocketwatch. Manufactured in Birmingham, England by J. Lancaster & Son, and sold for the princely sum of £1/11s 6d (which translates as roughly £1.60, but selling in excess of £25,000 in today's money, and note that my WQV-10 was about £180). There were two version available - one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen, and the resulting photographs would be 1x1.5" and 1x2" respectively.
I discovered this little gem in the Photography and Cinematography section of London's Science Museum. For more information, look here. The George Eastman House website used to have a huge photo of the camera itself, not to mention a full catalogue of cameras on display in various galleries, including the Photo-Revolver de Poche (it's a gun... it's a camera!) and the utterly bizarre Photo-Cravat.
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And here we have a more recent development, the Wristwatch Camera, on display in the Spy Museum in Washington DC. Not half as snazzy as the Casio version (which was available in the giftshop!), but cool nonetheless.
