

Programmable OLED watch by Texas Instruments and Fossil  - growt
http://www.metawatch.org/

======
jdietrich
This could be really interesting, but for the lack of low-powered wireless.
There's a really big market for wearable electronic 'things' in sport, mainly
to capture and display sensor data. Personal Area Networking has become a
mundane reality for serious cyclists, many of whom have half a dozen sensors
strapped to themselves and their bike. Most serious runners and triathletes
are using GPS enabled watches from the likes of Garmin and Suunto, usually
with multiple wireless sensors.

The ANT+ wireless standard is well established, with a huge range of products
available. Of the top ten finishers in last year's Tour de France, nine were
using ANT+. An ANT+ sensor can run for years on a coin cell battery, versus
hours at best for Bluetooth. Texas Instruments already manufacture ANT+
chipsets and are currently launching an integrated ANT+ and Bluetooth chip.

This stinks of a missed opportunity. Rather than providing a way in to a large
existing market, TI and Fossil are expecting developers to take a punt on a
product that has repeatedly failed.

~~~
there
when i was looking for a sleep monitor, i considered fitbit and wakemate.
wakemate uses bluetooth and its battery lasts about 24 hours (about 3 nights).

the fitbit tracker uses ant+ and its battery lasts a week or two, even with
all of the extra monitoring it does throughout the day (as a pedometer) and
wireless synching every time i'm near the base station. i was going so long
between charges that i'd forget about it, so i made the fitbit low battery
notifier (<http://fitbit.jcs.org/>) to send me a text message when the battery
was low.

from what i've heard, fitbit will be extending their products to include
heartrate monitors and other things using ant+.

~~~
limmeau
There is an OpenChronos firmware extension which contains a sleep phase
detector. Apparently (I haven't checked it) it works in connection with a PC
running a clock program.

<https://github.com/poelzi/OpenChronos>

------
imperialWicket
Is this just an <http://getinpulse.com> with an accelerometer and an extra $50
on the price tag?

inPulse seems to have an avid development community already, and I would go so
far as to say that the $150 inPulse (without the accelerometer) is a more
appropriate starting point for a wrist watch that can be customized. Sure
there is a lot you could do with motion sensors, but this is a niche market
already, and kicking the price up for a flashy feature seems fruitless to me.

Worth keeping an eye on for the hardware hackers out there, but I think I am
leaning inPulse.

~~~
erohead
Yup! It's pretty cool to see our inPulse community grow. Check out this hacker
who decided to write a watchapp-a-day for 30 days:
<http://osresearch.tumblr.com/>

Fossil entering the hacker market is interesting; it's great to see the
smartwatch market heat up!

~~~
michaelrlitt
Been following the blog - currently using "word-clock". This watch face is the
best conversation piece I've ever worn.

This watch totally revitalized my BlackBerry experience.

------
JunkDNA
I had hoped that the all digital display one would be less dorky looking. As
it is, I can't help but think that it looks like a modernized Radio Shack
calculator watch. Digital watches always seem to suffer from poor aesthetics.

------
usedtolurk
I know it's not fair, but when I read this all I could think about was Douglas
Adams' description of "...an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet
whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still
think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

They'll need a killer app to get any traction.

EDIT: On second thoughts maybe all they need are skins and screensavers.

~~~
hugh3
It is interesting, though, that we've pretty much gone off digital watches
since that was written in the early 80s.

I was watching an early 80s James Bond movie recently and shocked to see that
even James fricking Bond wore a digital watch in those days.

------
flashingleds
I'm actually pretty excited about this. I think anybody whose heart stirs a
little when they see a calculator watch can understand the appeal. It's a gap
in the market (if you can call it a market...) and an area the DIY community
can't really tackle, since to get a practical form factor you need some pretty
serious manufacturing capability.

An ipod nano on a watchstrap is not really any kind of competition; yes it has
better specs but you're not intended to be able to reprogram it. TI's previous
watch offering caught my attention, but the display on it was quite limited.
There's really a lot of scope for imaginative projects on this thing.

------
corin_
There is suprisingly little information on their site, considering it is due
for release on June 30th (even that date isn't on their site, but on their
distributor's product page.) The cost will be $199.

I imagine that developer information will come during/after Google IO this
week, as right now, there are just six marketing bullet points on the site.

The distributor's page does have a little more information:

    
    
        Add your own thread to the watch for special functions
        Use the Meta Watch low-power application framework
        No need to open the watch for in-circuit debugging
        Uses TI SPI-BY-Wire
        Leverage the Bluetooth radio and remote protocol for communication
        Sample code which is an Open Source Android SDK project demonstrating watch connectivity to an Android phone.  The project demonstrates watch idle screen use as well as notifications for:  CallerID, SMS messages, alarms, calendar events, music control, email and IM.

~~~
growt
Here is a little more information:

[https://estore.ti.com/MSP-WDS430BT2000D-Bluetooth-
Wearable-W...](https://estore.ti.com/MSP-WDS430BT2000D-Bluetooth-Wearable-
Watch-development-system-with-Digital-display--P2447C42.aspx)

~~~
corin_
Sorry I should have linked in my original comment, that's the page I was
looking at to get the launch date and the extra SDK information. It's still
very scarce, though.

------
unwind
This looks quite cool, a bit daring to come out with two different form
factors immediately. I can imagine that an application designed for the
digital watch's 96x96-pixel screen doesn't port naturally to the
analog/digital hybrid (a.k.a. "grown-up watch", heh) model's dual 80x16-pixel
screens.

Haven't checked the SDK though, perhaps they've handled this split and
abstracted it away.

Personally I also find the "whoa we're revolutionary, clearly that means we
must have a fake-Russian design" thinking quite tiring.

~~~
joezydeco
Might be daring, but this isn't Fossil's first attempt at a watch with some
kind of net connectivity. Remember Microsoft SPOT?

[http://reviews.cnet.com/watches-and-wrist-devices/fossil-
wri...](http://reviews.cnet.com/watches-and-wrist-devices/fossil-wrist-net-
fx3005/4505-3512_7-31203001.html)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Personal_Objects_Technolo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Personal_Objects_Technology)

~~~
bxc
Compared to SPOT, I can't decide if this has better or worse connectivity -
yes, its bluetooth and I can run whatever I want over it. But its only going
to go as far as my phone/laptop. So why not just interact with my phone or
laptop? From the "always online" perspective, it feels kinda precariously
balanced in a fairly narrow gap between "checking the screen of my phone" and
"feeling the incoming-message vibration in my pocket". Is that worth a few
hundred dollars?

I'm interested to see what other apps arise that don't require some permanent
connection to another device, though.

------
swift
I know that some people feel they still need a watch, either as a status
symbol or because they feel it's more subtle in a meeting to glance at your
watch than your smartphone, and for them this might be great.

For me, though? I can't say I've fully transitioned to the post-PC era, but I
definitely entered the post-watch era quite some time ago.

(Aside: thinking about some sort of crossover of watches and smartphones makes
me imagine a pocketwatch where the watch is an iPod nano and the chain is a
pair of earbuds, modified so that the earbuds can lock on to each other and
thereby clip the pocketwatch to your clothes. Might be nifty.)

~~~
kleiba
I have neither a smartphone nor a watch, but I guess I would prefer a watch
because neither the manufacturer nor a third party are very likely to track me
or do any other kind of spying on me. YMMV.

~~~
hugh3
If your everyday activities sufficiently interesting to bother spying on, then
someone will find a way to spy on you anyway. If they aren't, then I doubt
anyone will ever bother to sift through the data to find precisely _when_ you
went to the supermarket.

~~~
kleiba
That would probably be true if sifting through these data were a very
complicated and thus costly thing to do. But is isn't, especially since you
can more or less to it for all of your targets simultaneously. And there is
good reason to do it, too: profiles of people are a valuable resource.

------
bxc
I'm also quite interested to know on the analogue one if the hands are
controllable from the microcontroller, and if so, how much - eg. can they just
be made to tick forward one tick, or can they be spun wildly backwards and
forwards to indicate interesting analogue quantities that are not the current
time?

~~~
joezydeco
Now _that_ is a killer idea. Something as simple as showing the hands count
down to your next calendar event would be way more useful on a wrist than
checking the phone.

------
vvpan
IT makes an embedded watch kit.
[http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos?DCMP=C...](http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos?DCMP=Chronos&HQS=Other+OT+chronoswiki)

~~~
andrewcooke
yes, i was wondering if this is the same thing in a new package? didn't that
one sell out like crazy when it was first launched? i suspect this will too.

~~~
bxc
I heard from someone that it sold out. But I've seen pretty much no "hacker
presence" online - which suggests lots of people bought them and then put them
in the drawer, or use them as something mundane rather than worth writing
about online.

~~~
andrewcooke
yeah, i only remember the initial fuss - can't remember seeing any results.

------
laut
The site shows two watches and one of them looks like it has an e-ink display
and no OLEDs. The "Digital with 96x96 reflective / always on display
technology". That sounds and looks a lot like e-ink.

Seiko and others have also released watches with e-paper displays:
[http://www.seikowatches.com/baselworld/2010/precon/0402-epd....](http://www.seikowatches.com/baselworld/2010/precon/0402-epd.html)

------
6ren
I think the technology is already beyond this, and that an ipod nano in a
watch form-factor, with the power of one or two generation old iPod Touch, is
just around the corner.

Look at the popularity of the TikTok/lunaTik:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-
lunati...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-
multi-touch-watch-kits)

~~~
Steko
Generally the tiktok reviews have been: cool idea but you need to touch the
watch to activate the screen which cripples it.

Metawatch promises always on with it's OLEDs so you can... know what the
temperature is at the airport. Pretty sad 1/3 of their breakthrough products
display is a waste of cycles weather widget.

~~~
drblast
I wouldn't call that a waste; you no longer have to look up to know if it's
sunny.

------
bxc
TI has had a similar looking programmable watch out before. Going by what's
available on google searching for people developing with that one, there was
no uptake at all. I wonder if that will happen for this one too?

<http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos>

~~~
gonzo
I own two of these, and yes, they're quite limited.

The MSP430(BT5190) in this watch (requisite to run the CC2560 Bluetooth
chipset) is a bit more than the MSP430 in the EZ430-Chronos.

The MSP430BT5190 comes with a FreeRTOS port. (Very) Likely this is what is
used for the Fossil watch as well.

------
jakemcgraw
If you can't get the price below $199 I can't imagine anyone buying this
thing. Stack it next to an iPod Touch which retails for $230 and we'll see who
goes for the watch. I think the era of Brookstone and The Sharper Image "neato
gadget comes at a premium" is dead, but this thing harkens back to a simpler
time.

~~~
bitwize
It's not dead. Apple just cornered that market.

------
mhd
I'll buy a bluetooth watch as as soon as it has a speaker and a mic. Apart
from the occasional "Dick Tracy" "head"set usage, this would be quite useful
for recording meetings or notes to yourself.

------
russellallen
This does look cool, but I'm torn - I find something really attractive in its
antithesis: beautifully designed purely mechanical watches that only do one
thing and do it without electronics or batteries or Bluetooth connectivity.
Self contained, intricate and simple at the same time. This watch will never
have the same aesthetics even if it does have a Dick Tracey vibe to it.

~~~
bxc
alas, that won't implement the killer app of weather-on-your-watch.

no wait:
[http://www.watchestobuy.com/RevueThommenAirspeedAltimeter.ht...](http://www.watchestobuy.com/RevueThommenAirspeedAltimeter.htm)

------
JoeAltmaier
Looking forward to their announcements about improved walkie-talkies,
advancements in CB radio design, and nano-polymer typewriter ribbons.

~~~
limmeau
While I appreciate your choice of examples to make your point, I'm not
convinced that pulling a slab of electronics out of your pocket every time you
need to know the local time is already the peak of perfection.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
So of course strapping a slab of metal and electronics to your wrist is the
optimal solution.

I thought wristwatches were dying, like newspapers, books, snail mail etc. Am
I wrong? I can't seem to google anything on the topic.

~~~
limmeau
A lot of people I know don't wear a watch, so yes, I believe that watches are
becoming more of a niche thing.

As for the optimality of the solution: of course wristwatches aren't perfect.
Let's just not sound silly twenty years from now when everyone is wearing
brain implants (or a nuclear-powered fax machine necklace).

------
chopsueyar
I'd prefer e-ink.

------
olalonde
I guess watches won't be allowed during school exams in a near future.

------
jasiek
Does anyone know if it comes with a networking stack?

------
jimbobimbo
SPOT watch ver.2: D.O.A.

