This is gorgeous. I’m very afraid if I buy one it will trigger a wave of revulsion for normal everyday products and I’ll become one of these obsessive people who talk about fonts.
This happened to me with RPN calculators. One day I realized I had way more calculators than I knew what to do with. Original HP's, re-released HP's, SwissMicros, not to mention the accompanying documentation I printed out and had spiral-bound. This all started out because I wanted a FOSS calculator to do some math for another rabbit hole I was down. Next thing I knew, I was getting excited about the life you'd get out of silver oxide batteries.
Same thing happened to me when i first considered buying a mechanical keyboard. After decades of not caring about keyboards, and laughing at those who did, i found myself considering a 500$ keyboard. But i pushed back from the computer. I eventually bought a 45$ mechanical "gaming" keyboard and am still perfectly happy with it four years later.
Time to start a project to make a handcrafted lacquer face for some other calculators; I have a few HP-80 (https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp80.htm) to test the idea on ;)
Knowing about Japanese Lacquer (aka Urushi) will change the way that you see the world. Urushi is the sap of a tree that is related to poison oak and posion ivy. You can learn to use it by wearing a biohazard suit or by suffering through until you develop an immunity to the urushiol. To call it "the itch" does not do it justice. You do not really know the full depths of being a human until you decide, with full knowledge of the consequences, to go down this road.
Urushi is transformed by curing in a warm and humid environment to something that is food safe and not toxic - for example Japanese rice bowls. Then there are they myriad decorative techniques such as Rankaku - using quail egg shells for decoration.
Reading this webpage, and then the other comments here, taught me something important about myself: I am a Philistine. I don't think I would notice any difference between this and a glossy plastic calculator costing $5. I actually assumed that this piece was for people who collect calculators, but it seems like it has broader appeal based on the other comments?
It's a vanity item, like a Rolex watch, and its existence is not for actual utility.
Utility-wise for the cost, it's not outstanding compared to regular calculators. If you spend enough time with S100X for the cost to be justified, then you are wealthy or you are spending way too much time at the calculator and should reconsider your workflow, e.g. using a spreadsheet or Python script instead, and those things are cheaper than this calculator.
Nothing wrong if anyone wants to buy it. But technically there is nothing special here, just the physical appearance/build.
This is almost certainly a Japanese product for Japanese people/companies who will give it to other Japanese people as a GIFT. Japan has a never-ending gifting protocol. People buy perfectly normal beer in a fancy box, to give it as a gift. It's a nice thing about Japan that is particularly Japanese, which is probably why many of you don't understand the purpose of this product. I bet if someone gave it to you spontaneously, you'd appreciate it!
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 57.1 ms ] threadNOT ME, NOT ME.
And try to use the em-dash properly these days!
It's called "having a style", and there's nothing wrong with it.
Urushi is transformed by curing in a warm and humid environment to something that is food safe and not toxic - for example Japanese rice bowls. Then there are they myriad decorative techniques such as Rankaku - using quail egg shells for decoration.
I've recently seen the word "entanglement" in a completely different context. But Urushi entangles you in nature and your environment in way that is utterly breath taking. For example: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2019/modern-masters-...
[edit for grammar and clarity]
Utility-wise for the cost, it's not outstanding compared to regular calculators. If you spend enough time with S100X for the cost to be justified, then you are wealthy or you are spending way too much time at the calculator and should reconsider your workflow, e.g. using a spreadsheet or Python script instead, and those things are cheaper than this calculator.
Nothing wrong if anyone wants to buy it. But technically there is nothing special here, just the physical appearance/build.
I would buy it instantly, if it would be a scientific calculator, ideally with RPN.
Oh and i would have used a LCD with amber on black.
[1] https://paulgraham.com/brandage.html