New Designs: Will the Wristwatch Become an Extension of the Smartphone?

By Karla Robinson
August 24, 2012

Wristwatches didn’t really catch on until after World War I when people began to ask if it made sense to carry their watch in their pocket. Decades later, people are again asking the same question after wristwatches were replaced by smartphones.
Apple, Nike, Sony and multiple start-ups are working to reinvent the wristwatch as an extension of the smartphone. These devices leverage the power of mobile devices to go beyond just telling time.
Sony’s Smartwatch, for example, can display emails and tweets. Nike’s FuelBand measures the amount of energy the wearer exerts in a day. Start-up Pebble has created a watch that can play music, display text, and show other information like weather.
But some have their doubts about the futuristic-looking devices. “I don’t know if the mass market wants a big display on their wrist if they have a display in their pocket,” suggests Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman. “The wrist is used for fashion and expression. You can’t just make something functional, and it can’t just do fashion, either… If you’re going to do this well, you have to merge the two.”
Rahman also suggests consumers might purchase multiple wrist devices for various purposes, which would be appealing to manufacturers. “You don’t wear the same thing when you go running that you do when you’re going to dinner,” he says.

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