Not Just a Pretty Face: The Fascinating History of Smart Watches
Anyone who has worn a Fitbit or a similar device tends to feel a near-religious compulsion to complete the obligatory 10,000 steps per day. The figure of 10,000 steps isn't enormously scientific: it was actually created for a primitive pedometer in Japan in the 1960s, amid a nationwide health obsession during the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The device, known as a "manpo-kei", translated roughly as a "10,000-step counter". But there is still little evidence that this is the "perfect" number (as compared to, say, 12,000), beyond Fitbit's distinctive tingle (and on-screen fireworks) to tell the wearer they've hit their goal.
Research by PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) in 2016 showed that health was the number one reason for users to buy a wearable device. This demand for ever more health information has defined new generations of smartwatches.
As heart rate monitors became more practical to put into devices, these have offered wearers new horizons in understanding themselves. It's telling that the fourth and fifth generations of Apple's watch have been increasingly focused on health. Apple Watch's Heart Rate app offers alerts if an unusual heart rate is detected. Devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active 2 are testing out stress meters and even blood pressure monitoring. These are gadgets that could potentially save lives.
The technology has also finally caught up with the ambition of the devices, delivering usable battery life and clear screens. When TAG Heuer launched its Connected watch in 2015, the company's engineers made huge efforts to ensure the battery life was 25 hours, meaning that owners did not have to charge their watch more than once a day. The company also refused to compromise on form factor, fighting engineering battles at the millimetre scale.
TAG Heuer's Connected watches have a hidden "technical bezel" underneath the bezel seen by wearers, connecting the antennae for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC so that the watch can be used for everything from playing music to paying for a coffee, despite its titanium casing.
Montblanc followed suit with its own Android-powered watch, as did Louis Vuitton. Eyebrows were raised at how such brands could imprint their identity on devices running an "off the shelf" operating system (Google's Wear OS). The answer was exclusive apps, playful casings, and attention to detail. Watch brands hired teams of in-house developers to ensure the machines delivered distinctive experience.If you say, "OK Google, Timer" to TAG Heuer's Connected watches, a timer appears—but it is a distinctively TAG Heuer timer. Louis Vuitton's Tambour Horizon builds on the brand's famous printed city guides, with digital versions on offer via the watch, plus a geolocation function which suggests the best nearby restaurants, hotels and landmarks.
The TAG Heuer Connected Golf Edition displays maps of the course, calculates distance to the green and even offers players the opportunity to log which club was used for each stroke. Montblanc's Timeshifter app, meanwhile, aims even more squarely at the international traveller, with an app offering advice on how best to avoid jet lag, such as adjusting the lighting and consuming caffeine at the right time.
Luxury brands also led the way in ensuring products were more "watch-like". Both Montblanc and TAG Heuer created facsimile faces based on "real" watches, built from computer-aided-design documents and videos of the watches ticking. TAG's faces took two weeks each to create, then a further two weeks of testing. TAG also ensured its Connected watch was "always on", so users didn't have to "flick" their wrists to activate the screen. Later, Apple bowed to consumer demand and made its Series 5 watch "always on", too. It's one of those tiny improvements which suddenly makes the entire product more stylish, more dignified, more watch-like.
It's part of a gradual evolution which saw smartwatches move from trying to emulate smartphones, with everything done through a touchscreen, to a more thoughtful approach where rotating bezels (as in Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active) allow users to scroll through menus, and gestures such as placing a palm over the screen turns it off.
Other devices, such as Breitling's Exospace B55 Connected, turn the equation on its head. There is no screen on the watch, with controls "outsourced" to the app so that users can adjust settings from their phone. In effect, a smartphone becomes the watch's instrument panel (though Breitling prefers the word "slave"). Such "hybrid" watches allow wearers to straddle the worlds of traditional watchmaking and technology.
The relationship between the watch and the phone is also evolving steadily: an increasing number of models, from Apple to Samsung, offer a built-in phone aerial, so that the watches are no longer simply an extension of another, larger device, and can access emails, music and apps independently.
Smartphones themselves slowly evolved from having to plug into PCs to flying free on their own, and eventually eclipsing their forefathers. One day, might the smartwatch replace the smartphone altogether?
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