Almost as fierce as the widespread devotion to the 12c is a stubborn resistance to any changes in the way it looks or functions. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
One early draw of the 12c was the longevity of its batteries. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Thirty years after the launch of the 12c, it's still commonplace for financial analysts filing into a conference room to set down their calculators next to their papers and cellphones. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
New arrivals quickly learn that ignorance of the 12c can flash more warning signs than a scuffed pair of shoes. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Indeed, the 12c, which costs $70 on H-P's website, is H-P's best-selling calculator of all time, though the company won't reveal how many units it has sold over the years. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Corvallis Gazette Times/Associated Press Dennis Harms, pictured in 2006, helped create the HP 12c. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
In the 30 years since he bought his first HP 12c, says James Meyer , chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors, an asset manager in West Conshohocken, Pa., he has changed its batteries only twice. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
In the afternoon, starting at 1 pm/12c, we get three classics in which the stars directed themselves to Best Actor nominations: Orson Welles as Citizen Kane, Charlie Chaplin as The Great Dictator, Laurence Olivier as Richard III. ❋ Unknown (2011)
The 12c is slim, black and gold, and rectangular, just over five inches wide by three inches high. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
And he still uses it constantly, just like thousands of other 12c enthusiasts. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
"You never know when you're going to want to check some numbers," says Mr. Goddard, who still rarely travels without one of his two 12c calculators. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
"The guy with the totally beat-up HP 12c—you know he's actually done things in business," says James Granberry , a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Keith Goddard , president of Capital Advisors, a Tulsa, Okla.-based money management firm, brought his 12c to Bermuda's Elbow Beach along on his honeymoon in 1993. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
"One benefit is that when I leave it on a conference table here at our offices, none of the young analysts know how to use it," says Christopher Wolf , co-chief investment officer at Preservation Trust Advisors LLC, a mutual-fund firm in San Francisco, who bought his 12c in the early 1980s. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
"Once you learned it on the 12c, there was no need to change," says David Carter , chief investment officer of New York wealth-management firm Lenox Advisors, who has owned his 12c for 22 years and still keeps it on his desk. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Sales of the device, which debuted in 1981, haven't slipped even after its manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard Co., introduced more-advanced devices or even, two years ago, a 12c iPhone application, which replicates all the calculator's functions, the company says. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
H-P's only major facelift of the calculator was the 2003 launch of the pricier 12c Platinum, which has more memory and additional functions. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Mr. Granberry, who runs a Facebook page dedicated to the HP 12c, made a point to take along his seven-year-old 12c to a meeting with a potential investor—even though he could perform all the calculations using his iPhone's HP 12c app. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
To test the 12c's durability, engineers practiced dropping it onto concrete floors, says Dennis Harms, who led the original 12c design team and still works at H-P. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
Matthew Rothman bought an HP 12c financial calculator for his first job out of college in 1989. ❋ Kristina Peterson (2011)
