HAVE you watched Star Trek, Knight Rider, The Jetsons, and other science fiction series where people communicate through their wristwatch? When these series first appeared, it seemed a far-fetched dream — but this is a reality now. Known as smartwatch, these wristwatches are now available in the market and are referred to as a digital assistant. Let us now look at some of the digital watches made in the past and how technology has made advanced versions of such watches possible.

Wristwatch

THE primary function of a wristwatch is to tell the time and almost all models do tell day/date as well. In addition, people are also using digital wristwatches that have a calculator, built-in light and can save short messages as well.

Smartwatch

A SMARTWATCH can play digital media, radio, inform about the weather, keep your things-to-do list and has a built-in camera. However, smartwatches differ from other digital watches because they connect with your Smartphone and you can receive/make calls through your smartwatch. Pulsar

Hamilton Watch Company produced Pulsar in 1972 and was later acquired by Seiko in 1978. The Pulsar could store 24 digits, a major step forward at the time.

Data 2000

IN 1983, Seiko released Data 2000, which could store 2000 characters in its memory. During the 1980s, Casio manufactured the calculator watch, which had all the buttons of a normal calculator.

RC-1000 Wrist Terminal

SEIKO manufactures a wristwatch in 1984, the RC-1000 Wrist Terminal, which could connect with the PC through a cable, because Bluetooth wasn’t invented back then. It had only a 2KB of memory, but was equipped with an application to plan memos and had a world clock and a calculator.

IBM Watchpad

IN 2000, IBM released a wristwatch that ran on the operating system, Linux. Later, IBM joined hands with Citizen Watch Company to manufacture the WatchPad having a 16 MB memory. However, the project was discounted two years later.

Samsung Galaxy Gear

SAMSUNG took the first leap in September 2013 by introducing the Galaxy Gear that runs with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone and connects itself with the smartphone via Bluetooth. With the release of Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company has made its stronghold in the smartwatch category, which will boost the sales of its smartphones.

Samsung refers to the Galaxy Gear as its product for the future and it is indeed one because it will change the way people communicate on the go, without keeping their cell phones by their ear, but talking to their wristwatch while commuting. The Samsung Galaxy Gear has a touchscreen display similar to a smartphone and runs on battery. It contains a 1.9 megapixel camera and 4GB of internal memory.

In addition, Galaxy Gear has one unique feature called the noise-cancelling microphones. When talking on the smartwatch in the open, the users might not hear each other’s voice properly. This is where the microphone comes into play, as it only transmits the user’s voice while reducing the noise from the surrounding.

Sony SmartWatch

IN September 2013, Sony too launched its version of the smartwatch. Where Samsung Galaxy Gear is compatible with only Samsung smartphones from the Galaxy series, the Sony SmartWatch, on the other hand, is compatible with most Android phones. The smartwatch is slightly smaller as compared to Galaxy Gear but comes in multi colors and has more functions.

Pros and cons

THE advantage of a smartwatch is that they bring convenience to your life as you can use your watch to send/receive SMS and make/receive calls. Moreover, there is no need to pull out the smartphone from your pocket as you can even check your emails through your smartwatch. The disadvantage is that since a Smartwatch still depends on your smartphone, therefore, you need to have a smartphone to use a smartwatch.