What's the oldest piece of tech you still have running?

Me. 62 years. As long as it keeps on ticking, I'm proud.

I've got a Miele washing machine that's the best part of 40 years old. It's required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.

My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.

My original NES and game cartridges. Still work great, although retired as collectibles in favor of emulators now.

A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori: the watch may outlive the watchmaker. Build things well -- they may be all people remember you by, one day.

I also have a slide rule at my desk at most times, to remind me of false-precision.

I guess the oldest though, is a Wu Zhu coin from the Three Kingdoms period (currency is a technology, too?). I keep it to remember that all empires arise from chaos, and must return to it; that all assets eventually have no value. That the things that endure, are stranger currencies still.

A 1940s era Sterling Siren Model "F" factory siren. This siren spent decades outside of a Long Island, NY firehouse, acting as a street clearing siren to allow fire engines to exit the station unimpeded during an emergency. It was decommissioned a few years ago and popped up on eBay, and I was able to get ahold of it for cheap as the seller didn't know its worth. Model F sirens are very hard to find, as they haven't been made since the 1960s, and the need for street clearing and fire sirens have lessened with the advent of pagers. I believe there are less than a dozen left in service across North America.

Mine is in very good running shape, despite its age. I lubricated the bearings recently (brass sleeve bearings) and let the motor break in. It isn't quite as loud as my Federal Sign & Signal Model "L" (built in the 1960s) but still packs a punch. I usually set them off with the city sirens every Monday. It does need cosmetic restoration, as the paint is badly weathered and the projector has some dents in it, but it won't be hard to fix up.

https://youtu.be/KvsGiL15g1k?si=ZgheNIH-fqOHJXnJ

My Model L is on the left, and my Model F is on the right.

My paternal grandmother's KitchenAid model K mixer she bought just after my grandfather returned from WW2. She gave it to my mother in the late 70's because she wanted a new one and the damn thing showed no signs of dying. My mother gave it to my wife about 15 years ago for the same reason.

We've bought some new accessories but that fucking zombie mixer will outlast the roaches.

I still listen to my music using a 160 GB iPod Classic. Apple struck gold with that clickwheel. Carrying around a dedicated device for music just for that elegant one-thumb control I don't even have to look at to use is still totally worth it to me.

I am the oldest piece of working hardware I own and I am constantly disappointed by it

You probably mean electronic not technology. But I have a mechanical singer sewing machine from the 1800s that's still in working order.

Not at all impressive, but to maximize interactions on a newborn thread:

It's probably my PS3, which I would have gotten Christmas 2008 (or maybe it was 2009?). I recently started sailining the seas, and the most convenient way to watch those videos is to burn them to a disk, and so the PS3 is really just a glorified DVD player (can't even be bothered to use it's blue ray functionality)

I have my grandparents gramophone.

We pull it out each year to listen to their old Christmas records.

It's become a tradition that my university age kids still look forward to.

I have a General Post Office model 711 telephone. I installed a microcontroller into it and it's now the keypad for my home alarm system. It's also hooked into Home Assistant so I could have it for other things if I wanted.

I got a fountain pen with my initials on it from my grandfather. We have the same initials.

Depending on what you consider technology:

I have several firearms well over 100 years old in perfectly operational condition.

Quite a few kitchen appliances from the 70s that will never die.

And a working Apple IIgs.

As far as use on a daily or near daily basis, I have a 1974 Fender guitar amp, and a few other speakers and musical instruments that are vintage that are also going to outlive me.

I have a beard trimmer from like 2008. I have literally no feelings about it.

Polaroid Land camera, ~1950. Found it after my grandparents passed. Never tried using it, it's just neat.

I have a wheel on my bike.

A 12" Samsung TV that I've had since I was a kid. If I had to guess I'd say it's from 1989 or so. It still works perfectly except that it now has to warm up for a minute or so. I currently have a Roku box connected to it that I use for watching old shows in SD format lol

1959 mechanical cameras. An electronic camera from 1969. Polaroid SX-70 from 1976. A calculator from 1988: FX85P from Casio. And then the Atari Lynx from 1991.

A very rare 1965 push button UK telephone, which I converted to work on DTMF.

Almost all UK phones from this era are dial based so it was very hard to find. It is our actual land line phone, not that our landline is ever used. Looks cool though.

My car. 1995.

1966 Fender Princeton guitar amplifier. Me likey

I absolutely cherish it.

I still use my Dad's old hifi from the 70s to listen to records. It's one of the only things I have that was his, so it has a lot of sentimental value to me.

Gameboy Color with 1st gen Pokemon still running strong

I’ve got an old iRiver mp3 player thats still ticking (as soon as you pop a AA in it. Would play enough music for me and can plug it in via mini USB I believe.

In terms of things passed down, I have the original Wii my parents bought for us on Christmas of 2008. In terms of consoles, I have a Nintendo 64 I got off eBay to play the collection of cartridges we had been accruing since the late 90s.

As for the oldest antique item, I have some mechanical slide calculators, two from Australia, one from Japan, and one from the US. No idea the exact years of manufacturing, but the US one is a Tasco Pocket Arithmometer, which I think ceased manufacturing in the early 1900s ( it's been a bit since I last researched it.)

I still use a nearly 20 year old DSLR as my primary photography camera. It’s all personal stuff so the lower resolution and overall lower quality compared to modern cameras doesn’t bother me much. The battery isn’t doing so well after 20 years though, so I’m getting a couple new ones and a larger memory card for it. Hoping to buy a new camera soon and get at least 20 years out of that too, but I still plan to use my current one alongside any other camera as I really like the look of the images it produces.

Not that old but my 2009 i5 750 can still rock most of the games at a solid 1080p. I added a fan and overclocked it to 3.6, some ram and a 1060 gpu. It now serves as our main streaming / gaming computer on the TV and shows no sign of giving up. Overall I've spent less than 650$ over 15 years on a computer that we use daily.

IBM PS/1

Proud as fuck, as it's my first pc. I'm 26

My Aiwa P22 micro hifi from 1978. Very nice, compact and sounds great.

Commodore 64 but for everyday stuff my Alienware X51 R3 is a weird, old Frankenstein monster

I'm still using an IBM model M keyboard from 1989. Picked up a conversion cable to go straight from the weird RJ45 connector to USB and have zero issues with it.

I have a GeForce GTX 970 from 2015 that's still doing sterling service every day in my recently refreshed HTPC, delivering 4K movies and the occasional game to my 65in Sony OLED TV. My best tech buy ever.

I have a Panasonic "Genius" microwave from 1983, still going strong.

A multimeter from the 70's, although I don't use it often anymore (I have two newer ones)

A Back and Decker b-100 corded drill from the 1960's with a skill saw of the same era. (Both backups in case my newer ones die.)

Also not really tech, but A scythe from the 1930's, an old clothes iron from the early 1900's (The kind you heated on the stove) a machete from 1920, and a couple old hand pump sprayers from the 20's or 30's (The type you screw a glass bottle onto) that all are functional but mainly just collect dust.

I probably have some other old crap I'm not thinking of at the moment, I just like collecting weird old things.

My original Atari 2600 and games I got as a kid.

EDIT: I am pretty sure my stove is from the 60's but it came with the house I bought in 2015, so I am not sure it counts.

A 1930s era Sunkist Juicer. That thing is still chooching along and just juiced enough key limes for two pies last night.

I have several of the original Philips LED replacement bulbs, which were some of the very first LED bulbs available. Paid about $35CAD each for them in late 2009 and they're built out of solid metal and weigh a ton. They're still going strong and put out a lovely light.

Pentax ME SLR camera, bought by my uncle in the 70s. Got some dents and scratches but it’s still taking beautiful pics.

SNES purchased by my parents in 1992.

An old blade server I was able to take from my very first job, state of the art for the time it was made around 2002. It's still running and I've been using it as a media and hosting server for years despite how out of date the specs are now.

Easily beaten by others, but I'm happy that my old Das Keyboard lasted nearly twelve years before it started missing keystrokes. Only retired it last week

My Atari 7800. Had to replace capacitors and a transistor to get it working again. Also added composite AV output.

Bang & Ollufsen record player from 1977

1975 Gibson Grabber bass. Instead of having multiple pickups, it has one pickup that you "grab" and slide across the pickguard. I had to get the fretboard re-set, as it had been sliding down the neck and making it impossible to intonate.

Terrible design, but it's a unique piece of music history that I enjoy having on hand.

My late version (early 90s) Quad 34 preamp.

It's a brilliant and somewhat unique design. The eq is part 8 pole tilt filter and part lift/step filter with adjustable turnover. This enables you to position the audio in a very precise and uncoloured way, much like changing your seating position in an auditorium. If you like bass you don't sit at the front!

It has a true mono selector, high and low frequency filters for radio and vinyl subsonics respectively, a modular phono stage for MM or MC turntable cartridge type, and the volume gain stage is accurate between channels to around a tenth of a dB, which is about ten times better than is generally accepted as adequate.

It's power is so efficient that it never gets even warm and it's audio design has a quality that is similar to the way valve equipment sounds.

It's a very special part of my system which drives my active speakers. They are pro audio which have a very accurate response compared to consumer speakers. The Quad gives them something special to reproduce which, with a lot of CD sources imparts a bit of character that's musical and very pleasant.

If it ever needs servicing, I can take it to the Quad service centre where it was made in Huntingdon near Cambridge, a couple of hours drive away.

I'm very proud of my Quad 34, I wanted one for many years and was fortunate to be able to find a good one I could afford at the time. I expect it will outlive me, along with my speakers and a few other bits and bobs I've collected over the years. It's the oldest bit of technology I have that I use regularly. I have a film camera that may be older but I don't use film any more and I thought the Quad would be more interesting.

Thanks for asking and I hope you find this worthy. I'm happy to answer any questions about all this if anyone feels compelled.

Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario...I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.

If I'm going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.

An electronic typewriter that my parents bought when I was entering highschool in the early 90s.

While my first works of fiction we're not written on it, my first fiction I ever submitted (it was rejected btw) to a publisher was.

I wouldn't get successfully published until the late 90s/early 00s after I had built my first PC out of scrap parts and a cheap copy of windows 95.

But that typewriter still holds a special place in my heart.

1976 Gottlieb Volley pinball machine

A pair of vertical speakers with three elements each made by my father in the early 80s and the paired amplifier that he built at the same time