1987 WM-F109
The WM-F109 is a Walkman with a built-in radio.
1986
WM-109
The WM-109 was a compact playback-only Walkman from 1986 and the first Sony model to use a wired remote for basic transport functions away from the main body. The player itself housed auto-reverse and Dolby B in a slim, symmetrical metal body with a small cassette window and very little surface clutter, while the remote connected through a dedicated point in the headphone wiring rather than requiring a large secondary interface. The overall design stayed clean and balanced despite the added convenience.
This marked a small but important change in how Sony imagined portable listening in daily life. Instead of adding more sound functions to the body itself, the WM-109 explored what happened when the controls no longer needed to live on the machine at all. It feels like the beginning of a new kind of refinement, less about shrinking the Walkman itself and more about how it behaved once it disappeared into a pocket or bag.
Sony shifted more of the Walkman's interaction away from the main unit with the WM-109, a compact model built around the idea that daily control could occur through a wired remote rather than the player itself.
As portable devices became thinner and were carried in pockets and bags instead of worn externally, the remote allowed basic functions to remain accessible without handling the chassis.
The remote housed play, stop, fast-forward, and reverse controls in a small capsule that could be clipped to clothing or held in the hand. Once connected, the Walkman could remain in a pocket for extended periods, reflecting a change in how listeners used portable audio in the mid-eighties.
