When is a watch more than just a watch? When it is a smartwatch – that can do much more than just tell the time. Smartwatches are a relatively recent addition to the wristwatch genre, but a very important one.
When you mention the term “smart watch” today, one manufacturer will automatically come to mind – Apple. But Apple did not invent the smartwatch – that honour goes to a traditional American watchmaker – Timex – which introduced a watch called the DataLink that could transfer content from a computer exactly 30 years ago.
The second smart watch was produced in 1998 by another traditional watchmaker – Seiko of Japan. Called the Rupturer, it could run a few applications (this was before it was shortened to “apps”) and link to a PC. Casio too dabbled in a few watches that could do similar tricks. Samsung, Apple’s main competitor in the smartphone and smartwatch space, released a phone in a watch around 2000, but it was not a smart watch per se.
But before coming to the smartwatch, we must go back to 2007, when the first Apple iPhone came out (hard to think that 16 generations of the iPhone have gone by since). Apple started a trend that would soon be copied by Google and Samsung, which both rely on Google’s Android platform.
This led to a clamour by consumers for a wearable gadget that would mimic at least some of the functions of the smartphone. For example, they wanted to see who was calling without taking the phone out of the pocket. It took around seven more years for Apple to release the first modern smart watch, which was an instant hit. Google, Samsung and many others (including companies such as Garmin that specialised in GPS equipment) followed suit with their own takes on the smart watch.
Today, according to some analysts, Apple is the biggest watchmaker in the world in that sense of the word, having sold nearly 120 million of its smart watches. Still, Casio holds the record for the best-selling watch (F-91W), which has been in production since 1989 while the Swatch Group of Switzerland remains the biggest watch-making group.
Smart watches have evolved by leaps and bounds since 2014. Equipped with super-clear OLED screens, smart watches give you multiple watch-faces (dials) if you like the analogue vibe. But beyond just telling the time, they can do: Heart rate monitoring (Track your heart rate while exercising); Sleep monitoring (Track your sleep quality and recovery); Step tracking (Count your steps and calories); Distance tracking (Track the distance you have travelled) and Route recording (Record your route while exercising); Notifications (Receive notifications from your phone, including calls, messages, and emails); Social media and IM notifications (Receive notifications from social media and IM services); Use built-in GPS to track your location, speed, and elevation and get directions sent to your wrist.
Many of the latest smartwatches have fall and crash detection features that have saved many lives (once either is detected, the watch sends an automatic notice to emergency services) apart from Blood Pressure monitoring and in the near future, non-invasive blood sugar monitoring. For the tasks that they do, even the most expensive smartwatch (something like the Apple Ultra 2) costs less than US$ 800 (LKR 236,400) whereas a high quality, mid-range Swiss automatic watch will be priced well north of US$ 1,000 (LKR 295,000).
But there still are some downsides. Most smartwatches have to be “paired” with either an Apple or Android smartphone and cellular and GPS functionality adds an extra cost. They also have to be charged almost daily – even the most rudimentary automatic watch will have a power reserve of at least 32 hours while Quartz watches will run for 2-3 years before the battery needs to be replaced. Some Casios will run for 10 years before the battery dies.
Repairs and servicing of smartwatches is rather expensive, given the complex screen and electronics. Moreover, unlike most traditional watches, smartwatches are not really “waterproof”, although some have an IP68 Rating that is good for a wading depth of three feet. It is best not to go swimming or snorkelling while wearing a smartwatch, though any normal watch with a 50-100 m depth rating will enable you to do those. They might also survive extremely harsh environments and temperature extremes. You might also go OCD over health tracking with a smartwatch, which might ultimately be bad for your health.
But smartwatches are here to stay. They can literally give normal watches a good run for their money. There is no doubt that smartwatch makers will add more functions to these watches in the future and make them fully standalone devices untethered to smartphones.
In TimeWatch, we will give you the latest information on smart watches from time to time so that you can make an informed choice. Whether you want to buy a smartwatch or a traditional watch is entirely up to you. Or you can mix and match the two. But at the end of the day, a smart watch is a true marvel of modern technology that the earliest watchmakers in France and Germany could not have predicted even in their wildest dreams. In a way, why buy multiple watches when you can buy just one and have so many watch faces and functions on it?
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