Stacy Walter

Watch technology lives by ever-smaller and ever-faster micro-chip technology. Since 1994, two different forms of ‘Smartwatches’ have been available for purchase. One of these products is a watch which allows users to store appointed data, telephone numbers, and can be programmed to alert the user to events: the watch relies on software from Microsoft that the user programs using a desktop computer. The second product is a watch that provides its users with a paging system as well as information stored through an online data service on the watch itself, including such features as sports scores, weather information, the stock exchange, and a telephone directory. The development of these products has resulted from the idea that ‘smarter watches are the future,’ coupled with the desire of watch companies to provide technologically-advanced communications systems at a user’s wrist (Gleick 1995).

While there exists two defined categories of Smartwatches, it is important to note that, as of March 1998, there are no specific guidelines delineating one smartwatch from the next. Major watch companies have all developed their own versions of a smartwatch, complete with unique technologies, features and functions. Thus, to fully understand the technologies used in creating this generic product, one must look at each watch individually rather than as a group.

Timex’s Data Link uses a wireless optical scanning system to receive the data from Microsoft software, and it is designed to help organize one’s day (Reuters 1994). A chip, developed by Motorola with the processing power of an early Apple P.C., fuels this watch, which includes a new five-alarm appointment manager, to-do list, and phone book. The Data Link has its own approach to data transfer, using an electric eye, which is pointed at one’s computer screen to read flashing bars of light (representing the data) on the monitor. This watch was developed jointly with Microsoft; thus, a user must have an IBM-compatible PC, running Microsoft Windows 3.1 (or later) as well as an external Cathode Ray Tube monitor in order for this product to work. A Software Developers Kit is included with the purchase of this watch, containing ‘Wristapps,’ a small applications program that users download to their watches (Lewis 1994). Other programs can be purchased and downloaded off web sites to add features to this watch (Gleick 1995).

Another product is Seiko’s MessageWatch, a personal messaging tool, which makes use of a sliver FM radio spectrum to receive telephone pager messages, the closing Dow, sports scores, and weather information (Gleick 1995). The MessageWatch functions as a pager when a caller dials the pager‘s telephone number. The call is carried over telephone lines to a paging control center, which offers the caller a variety of short messages and the option of relaying a phone number. The message is sent to FM radio stations, who broadcast the message over sub-channels to the subscriber’s wristwatch, where it is displayed (Sims 1989). MessageWatch customers select the Information Service messages of their choice when they activate their watches; these are customize by market and availability (including daily news reports, weather, sports scores, and financial information).

A third device has been developed in partnership with Citizen Watch and Starfish Software, called REX (Rolodex Electronic Express). This product stores names, addresses, notes, and lists in a Type II PC Card form factor with a 9 x 33 LCD display. The user interface is 5 microbuttons, which are used to access preference functions (world clock, to-do lists, memos, address book, and calendar). Users enter data into REX through a PC, not directly through the watch.

Swatch, too, has introduced a new wristwatch pager, in a joint venture with Bell South Telephone Company. This product emits different signals which indicate a call and its location (only if it comes from a pre-selected source). With the purchase of this product, activation on MobilComm’s national paging network is included, as well as six months of service from the company. The necessary circuitry of the watch is on tiny silicon chips, and highly sensitive antennae rest in the watches’ bands to pick up the messages sent to the pager. This combination pager and wristwatch is just another signal of advances in the miniaturization of radio communications technology, which many of these products implement in their design and function.

Many of the Smartwatches are being jointly produced and designed by watch companies and wither computer or telephone companies, depending upon which features the products include. Seiko, Casio, Swatch, Citizen, and Timex, along with other watchmakers, have created a new genre of wrist devices and, as of March of 1998, are continuing to do so. Companies such as Microsoft, the American Telephone and Electronics Corporation, Motorola, and Bell South, have worked with the watchmakers to create technologically-advanced smarter watches.

Prices are extremely varied between products, depending upon the services and functions performed. Some of the Smartwatches retail as low as $40-$70 (which include calendars, appointment books, global time zones, and multiple alarms), while some can run well over the $200 mark (like the watch/pager models and the Data Link, the computer-driven Timex model).

As American society becomes more computer-driven and technological, there is a greater demand from the consumer to acquire products, like Smartwatches, which literally provide all sorts of pertinent and personal information at one’s fingertips. Because of the greater convenience and lower overall cost of the new watch pagers and data banks, many watch companies purport that both the business and non-business consumer markets will crave such products; expansion of sales is imminent, they believe (Sims 1989). Pager users who were once hesitant to carry a bulky beeper on their belts will enjoy the benefits of receiving their messages on a normal watch. Consumers who disliked carrying wieldy calendars and date books can access all of their appointments, to-do lists, stock market results, and weather reports from a small piece of jewelry, which conveniently also displays the time, day, and date (Sims 1989).

The thrust behind the creation of Smartwatches has been to appeal to everyone from the busy professional to working parents. Convenience is the noted feature in all of these products. The goal has been to miniaturize all data and communication technology in a Dick Tracy-like wristwatch for any consumer, whether that be a child in school or professional in the business world (Sims 1989). The watch companies have slightly different agendas than the partner telephone, pager, and computer companies, but all are working together to forward these products so that the consumer truly has access to a great wealth of information at one’s wrist.

Issues of policy have been crucial for some of these Smartwatches and nonexistent for others. The pager/watches have met some problematic areas with the Federal Communications Commission. This is a result of the network of antennas needed to properly broadcast power and messages to the watches; this, however, was settled with the sale of new frequencies with virtually no restrictions by the FCC (Gleick 1995). The pagers now use FCC-allocated channels and are therefore limited to local service areas. Development is underway, as of 1998, to expand service areas so that when a user is out of range, one can still receive messages on the pager/watch (which is not yet possible) (Sims 1989).

Several problems exist with Smartwatches. First, Timex’s Data Link is only operable with an IBM PC and a CRT. Macintosh and Apple computers are not compatible with this product, and, as of March 1998, Timex did not show any plans to change this fact. Thus, the number of consumers who are prohibited from using this watch simply because of the brand of their computer is fairly large (Komando 1998). Also, the Data Link cannot work with laptop computers, because these do not have a strong enough lighting source on their screens to transfer data from the computer to the watch (Reuters 1994). A number of companies, including both Swatch and Seiko, have experienced problems and delays in putting their respective Smartwatches on store shelves (Carnevale 1992). These setbacks have resulted from different issues, including too bulky of a watch (which has been since slimmed down), Seiko’s test project changing hand several times, and failure to acquire FCC permissions as to what channels could be used to transmit paging signals (Gleick 1995). Despite these glitches, engineers still foresee an ‘enormous market’ for Smartwatches, and they predict that it will only continue to grow as consumers desire high-tech wristwatch products for everyday, convenient use (Carnevale 1992).

The Smartwatch phenomenon is one that is growing rapidly, and given the positive consumer response, will continue to move in that direction. Watch companies are busy trying to create wristwatch computers and data systems, again, working in partnerships with other companies. These joint ventures add credibility to the products, as well as assure consumers that watch, computer, paging, and communications specialists are coming together to produce the best and most technologically-advanced wristwatch information systems available. Although there will probably never be a time when each American citizen is wearing a Smartwatch, the market will continue to grow as the potential success of this product continues to grow, as it has since it appeared on the market in 1994.

Carnevale, M.L. (1992) ‘Bell South unit and Swatch to introduce wristwatch pager, joint marketing plan’, The Wall St Journal, 4 March.

Gleick, J. (1995) ‘Watch this space’, New York Times Magazine, 9 July.

Komando, K. (1998) ‘Mobile computing offers gadgets galore’, Los Angeles Times, 30 March.

Lewis, T. (1994) ‘Information appliances: gadget netopia’, Computer.

Reuters (1994) ‘Timex and Microsoft team up on a watch’, New York Times, 22 June.

Sims, C. (1989) ‘Checking your watch for messages, too’, New York Times, 8 November.

http://www.messagewatch.com/infoserv.html

http://www.timex.com/datalink/3datalink_faq.html

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