The Timely History of Smartwatches

A computerized wristwatch with functionalities beyond the usual timekeeping is considered to be a smartwatch. The early model smartwatches performed basic tasks such as translations, game-playing and calculations but, modern day smartwatches could be effectively called as ‘wearable computers’. Most of the smartwatches run mobile apps, while few models run mobile operating system and function as portable media players. Certain models are called as watch phones as they feature all mobile phone capabilities and can make or answer phone calls.

Like other computers, a smartwatch can collect information from internal or external sensors, support wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. It is also possible that a “Wrist watch” may serve as a front end for remote systems.

Going through the history of smart watches explains their growth since 1982. Let’s look at some of the major milestones

2013

Avi Greengart, a consumer device analyst suggested that the year 2013 may be “the year of smartwatches”

On July 5, 2013 the list of companies engaged in smartwatch development activities were

• Acer
• Apple
• LG
• Microsoft
• Google
• Samsung
• Sony
• Toshiba
• HP
• HTC
• Lenovo
• Nokia
• BlackBerry

Christopher Mims, science and technology journalist listed out the following points on the smartwatches of the future:

• New display technologies will be invented for smartwatches
• The physical size of smartwatches will get large
• The successes of these smartwatches are unpredictable and would fluctuate
• Insufficient battery life is an ongoing problem for smartwatch developers

September 4, 2013: three new smartwatches were launched

• Samsung Galaxy Gear
• Sony SmartWatch
• Qualcomm Toq

December 6, 2013 – Dennis Woodside CEO of Motorola Mobility confirmed that his company is working on a smartwatch device.

2014

• 2014 is called as a year of “Wrist revolution” because of the amount of smartwatches and huge amount of publicity
• A large number of smartwatches were released from various companies such as Razer Inc., Archos and few other startups
• June 25, 2014 – the Android Wear platform was introduced and LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live released
• Moto 360 was announced by Motorola
• By July end CEO of Swatch’s Nick Hayek announced the launch of Swatch Touch with smartwatch technologies by 2015
• Samsung Gear S smartwatch was covered by the media in late August 2014. Gear S smartwatch is expected to hit market in October 2014, along with the Gear Circle headset accessory
• On September 9, 2014 Apple Inc announced the first Apple smartwatch called Apple Watch to be released in early 2015.

It just takes seconds to discover people’s belief on wearables and accept it to be the future of technology. Optimists believe that wearables have the power to transform society by just getting to the point of product creativity, capability and desirability.

To make smartwatches truly inventive and essential, designers have to look beyond the smartwatches.

Every revolutionary innovation has had its universality and its usefulness questioned in its infancy, and there are possibilities that smartwatches will move into the next levels of tech that people can’t function without. The impact in near future will be much greater while serving a small part of the population, but if successful, will become an essential product.

The best industrial design firms are finding new ways to make wearables more interactive, capable and informative. They are experimenting to make wearables fit into the workplace as iPads and iPhones. Think how wearables could change your world and make it a necessity in your life.