Juggling your PDA and cell phone is about to become a lot easier. This summer will see the premiere of both Palm OS and Microsoft software-driven watches aimed at making personal computing as easy as a flick of your wrist.

While still a two-way radio short of being a Dick Tracy wristwatch, the timepieces will pack enough programming to allow users to receive up-to-date and fully customized news, sports, and weather directly to their wrists or easily navigate their personal calendars and address books.

Microsoft is touting its new Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) watches. These watches are powerful as their 28 megahertz National Semiconductor processors give them four times the speed and eight times the memory of the original 1980s IBM PC. An easy-to-use configuration Web page enables SPOT device owners to select the type of information and services they want to receive on their watches; this content is subsequently beamed to and displayed on the watch.

The PDA watches offer the user the Palm OS 4.1 version of the software and an impressive 2MB of memory. They also allow the user to transfer information between their PDAs and the new device.

The watches have a clunky, retro-1980s feel to them, and their liquid crystal-like display harkens back to a simpler time when Atari and Commodore were the technofile buzzwords of the day.

While trendy accessories house Fossil is offering both SPOT and Palm OS versions of the watch, Citizen and Suunto only have SPOT versions available. SPOT watches will also be available under the popular Philippe Starck and Abacus brand names. Prices vary between $145 and $400.