I eagerly received my first Casio WQV-1 on 02-07, anticipating a seamless transfer of pictures from the watch to my laptop. However, the process turned out to be more challenging than I thought.

Price: EUR 99.95

I purchased an infrared receiver as my watch didn't come with one, but unfortunately, it proved ineffective, and I couldn't establish a connection. It turns out the watch exclusively functions with the original infrared receiver from Casio.

Price: EUR 12.99

Thinking ahead, I opted for the Nokia 6230i phone with an integrated infrared receiver. However, I later discovered that transmitting pictures from my watch to the phone wasn't possible; the functionality is limited to communication between the watch and another watch or a PC.

Price: EUR 20

To unlock my vintage Nokia phone, I had to acquire an old German SIM card.

Price: EUR 4.90

Connecting with a Casio WQV-1 owner from Hong Kong through Instagram was a game-changer. I received the original PC software for my watch from him, and that was truly awesome.

I acquired a backup Casio WQV-1 from a seller in Romania, complete with the authentic Japanese packaging and the original Casio infrared receiver.

Price: EUR 112.55

I had to order a specific USB adapter for my infrared receiver since it wasn't included in the original bundle from Casio.

Price: EUR 11.99

I bought a used IBM ThinkPad laptop from eBay, operating on Windows XP. The plan was to set up the original photo software and infrared transmitter on this laptop. However, due to numerous driver and settings updates required for XP, I sought the expertise of a specialist.

Price: EUR 30

I visited a highly regarded computer store in my town, and although they went above and beyond to fix my laptop, installing all necessary drivers, etc., they faced a setback. The original Casio WQV-1 driver, crucial for the infrared receiver, wasn't available online, leading to a real bummer!

Later, I discovered that the original Casio WQV-1 driver wasn't actually necessary to get the infrared receiver functioning.

Price: EUR 69

Once more, I reached out to the Casio WQV-1 owner from Hong Kong on Instagram. He mentioned that his brother might possess the original CD-ROM with the drivers. On 06-06, he sent me the .iOS file, essentially a duplicate of the original CD-ROM.

With no headway in picture transmission, I dedicated time to crafting the logo. To capture the essence of the 2000s, I fashioned the NFT2000 logo, drawing inspiration from design elements found on the original Japanese Casio packaging.

The pivotal moment arrived when I met Adrian in Frankfurt, my last hope for transferring the pictures. In a mere 5 minutes on my laptop, at precisely 2:12 pm, he successfully transferred the first picture from my watch. Adrian adeptly navigated the port settings on my XP laptop, effecting the necessary changes to make it operational, and remarkably, no special drivers were required.

I established the NFT2000 collection on OpenSea and uploaded the initial images as NFTs.