Smartwatches Reimagined

The Series 2 Apple Watch introduced last week is a good improvement over the original. But conceptually it's still the same type of product: it uses a smartphone operating system and smartphone UI paradigms for a watch. I'm convinced that smartwatches will have a big impact and will grow into a significant market, but this approach severely limits their growth. I will propose a new approach on how technology companies and fashion brands can re-think the concept from an engagement design and technology perspective and excite and delight consumers with next-gen watch products.

Here's the core problem: we cannot replace a collection of watches with a single smartwatch. Current smartwatch operating systems replicate the experience of using a phone. We typically commit to a phone for several years, and we're OK to take the pains of migration onto a new device. Watches are not like small phones, they're a form of small self-expression. They need to fit our mood, or context, and our clothing in a way that is not possible with a single device. We need to let people choose and switch watches seamlessly, and we need a healthy ecosystem that empowers brands, designers, innovators to compete, and bring color and life into this market. 

I have a deep interest in this technology. I've been an on-and-off smartwatch user since the Pebble 1.0 days, and from a professional perspective, my R&D team in Shenzhen is doing some really innovative, interesting work to figure out how we can advise our customers on this new digital engagement channel.

I want to have really great smartwatches! There is a place in my work and in my life for this. I don't think it's just me. So where is the experience failing and how can we fix it?

One vs many

Watches are considered by many as the single jewellery item a man should have. A great timepiece makes you feel good and ready for an important business meeting or a date. For a busy executive on an off day, that Star Wars themed G-Shock keeps you aware that you're not going to work today and you should not reach for your phone and your email. Buying a new watch with an interesting new design is a great way to shake up how you look for the outside world, and how you want to think about yourself. Confident? Successful? Nerdy? Ironic? Artistic? Or that "I don't care" functional watch that should underline your no-nonsense approach to things? Many of us have a range of different watches for different moods and contexts. Some people go the other direction, and fully commit to one great watch for a lifetime, and consider it as a heritage for next generations.

Smartwatches bring context-sensitive notifications, great shortcuts to our personal information, remote control for our phones, great convenience for our digital lifestyle. Nowadays, if I don't see the calendar item on my watch, there is a good chance I will miss the meeting. But smartwatches fail as a tool for self-expression for both the many-watches and the heritage timepiece user.

I don't believe even Apple's designers can create a design surface that can be customized to any mood or visual design to replicate the experience of selecting a watch for the day. Custom watch faces would be a starting point, but the shape, the material, the physical buttons create a rigid framework that cannot be changed. And for the heritage watch crowd, clearly there is no longevity to a technology-driven product, its lifespan is 3 years at most.

There are many practical issues with a single watch. Right now, I have to switch out the watch band for my Apple Watch if I want to go for a run or workout. It's something I have to do on a daily basis, simply because one configuration for the work day does not meet the needs for a sports context. The woven nylon band that's really comfortable for a normal day is unable to handle workout sweat. If I go for a 2-3 day trip, I don't want to worry about charging my watch daily, so I usually take my long battery life Pebble watch, and I have to re-sync and set it up again and again.

Design the Platform for Variety

The key to bring back the joy of variety and color into the smartwatch world is to de-couple form from function. Smartwatch operating systems need to enable us to easily switch watches on a whim, and seamlessly carry over the preferences, context, an application state into the watch on our hand. 

How far are we from a technical perspective? There are many challenges enabling that seamless experience. For example, I can always pick up a mechanical watch and use it right away. Smartwatches need to be charged first. Maybe a powered watch box, capable of charging all watches inside, would be an option. Pairing, unpairing watches to phones, and waiting for synching OS updates is clearly a no-go. I'm sure there are ways to identify which watch is being used by whom, for example we could use biometrics (like our pulse) to identify that the watch is on my hand, then add it as the active notifications channel.

How about applications and data on the watch? I think it's very clear that apps and application state needs to live in the cloud, as the watch is really a notification surface with limited hardware. However first-gen Apple Watch apps clearly demonstrate the challenges around that. Applications load slowly, and it's a pain to launch and use anything that is not directly wired into the watch face app. Strong caching and the concept of app streaming, new to the smartphone operating systems, would do the trick for this.

Coupling the watch to the smartphone is perhaps a stop-gap until we have GSM connectivity directly into the cloud. But either way, when the watch is switched on, getting preferences data should be first, and running the watch face app, then do app/OS updates in the background while the watch is usable.

Variety of Hardware/watch design

In my humble watch box (no expensive Swiss timepieces there), I have some Swatch watches with sentimental value, for example there is a model that you can only buy in the Louvre, and there is a summer edition Swatch that I searched for and bought in Italy. I have a really inexpensive automatic watch that I usually wear when I have to dress formal. I have a fashionable Boss watch I bought with my friend Ferenc when I was in a really down mood and needed a pickup. I have a G-Shock that for me really screams SUMMER and WEAR SHORTS, I always wear it in the beginning of the hot summer.

Are these watches better designed than my Apple Watch? Maybe, maybe not. But why would we want to give up the variety of the experience, and wait for a new Apple Watch every two years? Already many watch manufacturers experience the market pressure. Fashion brands give up on their watch product lines, and there is this sense that it's over like it was over for the camera and mp3 player market with the iPhone. 

Clearly, I don't see a chance that Apple will "open up" the watch platform so that these other brands can produce their own, unique watch designs. I think it'd be cool, but it will not happen. What's not completely unreasonable though: at least have a standard API in the cloud, so that any device can connect to my identity, and get access to my notification preferences from any watch platform. Apple and anybody else can innovate and compete on the hardware, but in the context of one of my watches and not aim to be the only one. 

What I'd love to see is, maybe Apple or Google designing an actual "smart glass" that fashion and watch brands could slap on their watch design, and that smart glass would be able to overlay and blend in digital information on top of the nicely designed physical watch face. Tech platform vendors can provide identity management, add their AI providers, and blend in digital information, without directly owning what's on my wrist.

Stay tuned for some more smartwatch thinking, and a little bit of insight into our Shenzhen wearables lab!