Experimenting with the use of materials for fashion products, tech giant Sony has developed an experimental e-paper watch.
The new creation, named as ‘Fes Watch’, has a modest, monochrome design. But it falls short of the features offered by the common smartwatches.
But the developers promise a good battery life that would last far longer with an estimated 60 days of use.
Stuart Miles, a gadget expert from Pocket-lint, calls the device as “retro and cool”.
“One of my predictions for next year is that fashion is going to play a huge part in shaping the tech industry. Having a phone that’s big and square is one thing, but if we’re actually wearing things, it has to look good,” Miles said while talking about the new creation.
If go by the watch’s design, its face and straps look like an e-paper display as it is comparable to the technology incorporated in e-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle.
This means the watch can alternate between various styles of watch face as well as strap design.
A Wall Street Journal report says it was a deliberate attempt by Sony to keep the development of the e-watch low-key. The company opted for using a spin-off division known as Fashion Entertainments to work on the device.
While attempting to gauge the public’s interest in the unique concept, Fashion Entertainments carried a crowd funding campaign so as to fund the watch’s creation. It managed to raise 3.5 million yen ($30,000; £19,000).
“We hid Sony’s name because we wanted to test the real value of the product, whether there will be demand for our concept,” a person familiar with the project said.
According to a Sony spokeswoman, the Fashion Entertainments is a division of company’s New Business Creation Department. The spokesperson also confirmed that it was currently working on a number of e-paper prototypes.
Several other e-paper experiments by Fashion Entertainments that are under process include glasses, shoes and bow-ties.
