In 1979 a burst of inspiration brought together two seemingly unrelated projects which were under way at SONY: incredibly light-weight headphones and a compact stereo tape player. The transistor radio offered a means to take broadcast music out of the home, to anywhere you wanted to be. The Walkman took the world a giant leap further by allowing individuals to "program" their own music and listen to it anytime, anywhere. Recording your favourite selection of songs onto a Compact Cassette(*) was the "program" used in a Walkman.
This short photo story focuses on the making of the 10th Anniversary Walkman, the SONY WM-701C. This factory tour was presented in a SONY document from 1989 dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of the SONY Walkman.
(*) The Compact Cassette was invented by PHILIPS in 1963.
SONY factory Japan
SONY robots on production line
First test
Pick-and-place machine for SMD components
Two identical circuit boards are ready
... more work at SONY
Final tests
Special packaging of the SONY WM-701C "10th Anniversary"
Ready for delivery
