Tag: smartwatch trends

A new kinds of tech for wearables is being developed that feels just like skin and that adheres like a patch.

As companies rush to try to bring new wearable technology to the market, there has been considerable focus on coming up with new and innovative ways to make options small, convenient, and unique from everything else that is out there.

When it comes to the direction that wearables are taking, the industry feels very certain about one thing.

The issue about which the wearable technology industry feels the most confident is that wearables are, indeed, the next era within the computing world. However, along with that certainty comes with a very important uncertainty, which is that the industry has yet to come up with a design and function that will define the way that these mobile devices are worn and used.

At the moment, the majority of major manufacturers are angling wearable technology toward smartwatches.

This has, for example, been the case with Samsung and Apple – with the latter’s entry being only very recent, in a device that will become available for sale early next year – which have chosen smartwatches to be their primary focus in wearables. Google, on the other hand, has created an operating system for smartwatches – Android Wear – but has also chosen augmented reality glasses, that is, a type of headset worn on the face.

Three are also a large number of companies that are starting to think that smart clothing will be the next big thing. That said, there is a tremendous number of startups that are popping up and that are each taking their own unique direction on how wearables will come to be. Among them is a new form that could adhere a chip directly to the skin in the same way as a temporary tattoo or an adhesive bandage currently sticks in place.

This type of wearable technology is already in development and is extremely thin, flexible, stretchable, and can be made to be clear (or close to the color of the wearer’s skin) or could feature a unique design that would stand out. An example of that type of tech is being tested out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a company called MC10. Their attachable computers currently look like small, rectangular stickers that include a tiny battery, a wireless antenna, as well as sensors such as for heart rate and temperature.

Shortly after the massive launch of the Apple Watch, this company has revealed that they have wearables of their own.

Though many had scolded Apple for waiting as long as it did to release its own smartwatch, now that it has happened, other companies are now coming out of the woodwork to announce their own upcoming entrances into this increasingly crowded segment of the wearable technology market.

Among the most recent has been TAG Heuer, as an executive has stated that its own product is in the works.

According to Jean-Claude Biver, the head of watchmaking at LVMH, the parent company of TAG Heuer, “We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch.” Biver expressed that the brand would have its own smartwatch, or several of them, to unveil in March at the Baselworld expo, at the very latest. Other than that, he did not provide any real details about what can be expected from the company’s entrance into wearable technology. He stated that “We cannot afford to just follow in somebody else’s footsteps.”

Biver had already made wearable technology by saying that Apple’s smartwatch was “too feminine.”

He also stated that the Apple Watch did not have the prestige and timeless appeal that have been achieved by traditional watches. He said that “This watch has no sex appeal. It’s too feminine and looks too much like the smartwatches already on the market.” Adding to his low opinion of the design of the wearable tech, he said that “To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester.” That said, this is not the first time that a watchmaker company exec has brushed off wearable technology only to sing a different tune shortly afterward. For example, the head of the Tissot brand from Swatch originally brushed off the idea of these wearable devices saying that there has been “a lot of noise” about them but that “you don’t see them on people’s wrists.” But soon afterward the news rang of the company’s investigation into internet connected features, since then there has been a direct announcement from Swatch, stating that they were planning to release its own smartwatch as a version of one of its Touch watches which would feature fitness tracking.