There have been many technological advancements and inventions within the watchmaking industry that never made it to the production line. One rather interesting example of this is the Sleeptracker, which was developed in 2005. It was an alarm watch that had an accelerometer built in; it would monitor a person’s sleep pattern and attempt to play the wake alarm during the user’s almost-awake phase of sleep.
Many other additional functions have been built into watches at some time or another; many were incredibly useful such as a GPS system; others like video games such as Nintendo's Game & Watch, although fun, were not particularly functional.
Looking back to the 1980s we see Seiko producing a watch with an in-built television; this seemed quite a miracle of engineering at the time, as television receivers were bulky affairs. However, it was soon realised that although the TV screen did indeed fit on your wrist, you were required to carry a large box, containing the receiver, in your pocket. We didn’t actually see a fully integrated television screen and receiver inside a watch until 2002. Although the watch could only power the television for an hour of viewing time.
Other companies have attempted to incorporate PDA functionality into a wristwatch, however, these were usually let down by the difficult user interface and generally small size of the watch face.
As we can see by these examples, attempts have been made to turn the humble wristwatch into a much more varied, multipurpose tool. Usually these gadgets have been firmly classified as geek toys, and have seldom sold more than a few thousand units.
Many other additional functions have been built into watches at some time or another; many were incredibly useful such as a GPS system; others like video games such as Nintendo's Game & Watch, although fun, were not particularly functional.
Looking back to the 1980s we see Seiko producing a watch with an in-built television; this seemed quite a miracle of engineering at the time, as television receivers were bulky affairs. However, it was soon realised that although the TV screen did indeed fit on your wrist, you were required to carry a large box, containing the receiver, in your pocket. We didn’t actually see a fully integrated television screen and receiver inside a watch until 2002. Although the watch could only power the television for an hour of viewing time.
Other companies have attempted to incorporate PDA functionality into a wristwatch, however, these were usually let down by the difficult user interface and generally small size of the watch face.
As we can see by these examples, attempts have been made to turn the humble wristwatch into a much more varied, multipurpose tool. Usually these gadgets have been firmly classified as geek toys, and have seldom sold more than a few thousand units.