Firstly, we have a question, what is a watch?
“A watch is a wearable time piece, that can be wear on wrist and carried in pocket to display time, date and other features”.
Purpose of watches:
Watches have various functions:
- Time-telling
- Fashion statement
- Status symbol
- Functional tool
- Luxury item
- Collector’s piece
Watches have been become a very important part and essential accessory for many people.
What is smart watch?
A smart watch is a portable wearable computing device in the form of wristwatch or other, time-taking device. In addition, these watches are Bluetooth capable. These watches are operated with touchscreen, and often run mobile apps that run with the help connected device like smart phone to provide several functions. The user can use smartwatches to answer phone calls on his phone, user can also read and dictate email and text messages by connecting his smart phone, he can get weather reports, he can listen music and ask a digital assistant a question.
Early smart watches were performing only basic tasks such as calculation, time telling, translations and game-playing. While smart watches those are released in 2015 have more and satisfying features and functions. They are designed as similar functions to smart phones, like mobile operating system, they have connectivity over Bluetooth and WIFI, they have also ability to play portable media players and FM radios. Some models have similar functions to mobile such as making phone calls and playing music and playing games.
What are features of a smart watch?
There internal hardware may include, most smartwatches have a backlit LCD or OLED electronic visual display and have a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Smartwatches have many features some of them are following;
- Health information: Smart watches have a feature they give us our health information such as heart beat rate, blood oxygen level, blood pressure and temperature monitoring of our body. Some smartwatches may include pedometers, galvanic skin sensors and ECG sensors may be double as activity trackers. Software of some smartwatches may include health and exercise related apps in which information about exercise is given for good health and mind. They also tell us how much distance we had covered.
- Notifications: Smartwatches give us a notification if we receive a call and message and our phone is not near us. They give us notification about our emergency calls and messages.
- Entertainment options: Smartwatches also provide us entertainment options like playing games, we can also play music and photos by connecting phone over Bluetooth.
- Location features: Smartwatches provide us locations features with the help of map, compass and altimeter and also through GPS tracking.
- Water resistance: Smartwatches are water resistant.
- Touchscreen interface: Smartwatches have touchscreen. We can operate them by touching on screen easily.
- Emergency features: Smartwatches have an emergency feature that tells us about fall detection and SOS alerts.
Smartwatches make a bond with user’s smart phone with the help of Bluetooth. Many smartwatches have similar features to smart phone which can be operated by connecting phone with smartwatch. Apple watch requires that users also have an Apple iPhone. Some smartwatches have special features for special uses. Such as, police officers can use smartwatches to receive alerts from dispatch. Pilots in U.S. Air Force use smartwatches that have special satellite navigation features.
Market growth of smartwatches
The global market of smartwatches is expected to a significant growth, by increasing demand of wearable technology in healthcare and fitness tracking features device like this. According to data from Statista shows that they had sale rose from five million units worldwide in 2014 and estimated sale 173 million in 2024. Smartwatches have risen in popularity during the 2010s. Today we are using these smartwatches as fitness trackers and smartphone entertainment or communication. According to Statista smartwatches are estimated to reach 44.15 billion dollars in 2023 and per year it is estimated continue growth of smartwatches to 62.46 billion by 2028. The top contributors to increase market growth of smartwatches include Apple Inc, Fossil Group Inc, Garmin Lt, Google LLC, Huawei Technologies Co, Samsung and Xiaomi are top contributors in increasing market growth of smartwatches.
What is history of smart watches?
If we talk about history of smart watches, we can go back in 1970s. Where the first smart watch Hamilton Pulsar released by Hamilton watch company. Pulsar then became very popular brand which later acquired by Seiko in 1978. After the introduction of personal computers Seiko began to develop computers in the form of smart watches.
Smart watches gained very popularity in 2010s. Brands those are very popular in market are Apple Watch released in 2013, take a very important role in the mobile computing market. Then google
Released Android wear a mobile OS, in 2014.
What will be the future of smart watches?
Smart watches are very changed in last 50 years. Now smart watches can track store and transmit very complex data of the wearer. They can also monitor chronic diseases. Smart watches are also helpful in this area by the combined GPS, Smart watches are also useful for identifying COVID-19 and contact tracking. According to researchers and market predictions global wearables market will grow to 19.48% from 2021 to 2026.
Smart watches for children and the elderly:
In China, since around 2015, smart watches are used by school children in large number. They are advertised on television throughout the country for the safety of children. They can make a call, in case in any emergency. These smart watches have limited functionality. They are only able to display time, and make a call, in case of any emergency and some smart watches show also air temperature They cost about US$100 to US$200. Smart watches of children are also sold in other countries. Smart watches are also been used by elder people and disabled people to report their location to their caretaker in case of emergency, if they fall and or become lost.
Popular brands of smart watches:
Here are some popular brands of smart watches:
- Apple: Apple brand is popular brand for its Apple Watch Ultra2, Apple Watch SE, and other many models. Apple is leading brand in smart watch market.
- Samsung: Samsung released many models of smart watches including Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.
- Google: Google Pixel Watch 2 is a popular choice, which offers very advanced heart beat tracking, stress management and many other features.
- Real me: Real me is also popular brand in smart watches market by offering budget-friendly smart watches like Watch 2 Pro.
Beat XP: Beat XP also offers budget friendly smart watches, such as Vega Neo, which has features a circular AMOLED display, it can also make Bluetooth call and many other tracking features