Wrist Genie e-paper smart watch with multiple time modes.

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Design submitted by Justin from the UK.

Justin says: The era of the Smart Watch is upon us. I thought it would a good time to try my hand at designing one. The market is still in its infancy and there is plenty of demand for them. Some try to do far too much, while others, not enough. I believe I have struck a nice balance here.

I will apologize in advance for the torrent of information below but as you can imagine its no easy task trying to explain away this many features with very few words/animations.

In this Dot Matrix E-Paper based watch I have crammed in 5 different time modes!! Shattered – Simple – Sliced – Rotation & Cheat Code. Each one has a varying degree of difficulty and each one unique. I have provided pictures and each has its own detailed explanation of how to tell the time. Shattered for me would be the most fun as when pressing the “Clock” part of the touch screen it would appear that your finger has broken the watch face.

I would hope everyone would wear this…that’s never going to be the case though as you can’t please everybody, so I would be happy settling for geeks and early adopters of this new technology. Anyone wishing to free themselves from the chains of having their face stuck in their phone 24/7 will no doubt feel some form of freedom with a smartwatch leaving plenty of time to enjoy the finer things in life.

• 5 Watches in 1.

• Bluetooth connectivity.

• Backlight at the flick of the wrist.

• Proximity Alert (Wander off too far from your phone and your watch will alert you!).

• Possibility of future apps being downloaded to your wrist – Ebay, banking info, News updates, weather alerts, travel info etc.

• New watch designs downloadable (for a price of course)…

The list goes on.

All it needs…is a name…

28 thoughts on “Wrist Genie e-paper smart watch with multiple time modes.”

  1. There is certainly a lot to think about with a smart watch. The possibilities are endless.

    Since the watch links to your phone, perhaps there wouldn’t need to be ‘watch apps’ as such – the apps on your phone could do all the work & simply beam over the info. I am not sure how viable that is, just thinking aloud.

    Excellent work Justin!

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    • Thank you, a lot of thought went into this and I know that smart watches aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I thought I’d try my hand at one…why not?! Rather than go for a full touch screen I opted for a cheaper “5-point” touch screen…all four corners and the center. The scroll sensor along the right side of the watch is where I guess the Genie name comes into it as it kinda feels like your rubbing it and magic happens lol. I opted for E-paper as this is the most economic type of display seeing as you should get at least 4-5 days between charges. Hope you guys like it and please be nice. I’ve even included bits of my fabled sketch pad to show my “working out” lol

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  2. Thanks for posting this one TF!! Yeah as I started off, I apologise for the massive amount of info piled in here. I tried to condense it as much as possible. Sure with certain apps the info could be streamed over via Bluetooth but my idea was maybe for you guys at TF to create some fun sideline designs (E-paper based obviously) and have those ready for purchase either from your own “Kisai Konnect” App Store or from whichever App Store is present on the device it is linked too. It would save on production costs and new “watches” would be cheaper and you would have a pretty much inexhaustible supply of designs from these guys on the blog. Sure, percentages of commission would be cheaper but it’s an idea for a new form of revenue and product. This by no means would act as a replacement to the usual TF watch range, far from it! It’s an idea though…just one I’m throwing out there.

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  3. You’ve obviously put a bit of thought into this…=) Looks like solid work to me, though smartwatches aren’t really my thing. At least not yet.

    In general it looks like a fine design, but the thing that stands out for me is the ‘shattered’ display option. It looks very cool, and it’d work fine as a standalone design if all the ‘smart’ stuff proves too difficult.

    good luck!

    By the way, your sketchbook looks a lot tidier than mine…=)

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    • To be perfectly honest, this watch started off life AS shattered!! Albeit a more refined and detailed version (in the sketch pad anyway) but as I added more and more of the smart features it eventually lost some detail as I was busy adding these extra bits n bobs.
      This smart watch at present doesn’t really seem to be doing that well and that’s a shame but at least there is support for it without the smart Bluetooth features. I may go back to the drawing board and focus my energies on shattered as a standalone creation and see where that goes.

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  5. it’s early for me to say being a new member to the blog but this looks like a small glimpse into the future of TF. Pelly makes a good point about an eventual Kisai ‘App Store’ even if its not apps, if you decided to make a range of LCD/OLED watches then there could be a seperate blog community that just design watch faces, UI and Displays. very interesting stuff really.

    welldone Pelly looks like one hell of a thought process! i also really like the style of the watch and agree with dzign555 and Anders that this watch would sell even if it was stripped of it’s ‘Smart’ agenda.

    5Y!

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  6. Hi Pelly, I’m not a fan of the smart watch, as I’m already all day at the computer or smartphone or tablet etc.. etc.., but I appreciate the work shown on the sketch book that shows us that a project generates a lot of thinking and for that reason alone, it métite 5 stars with a big Yes, nice work!

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  7. A smart watch is not for everyone, but I would be interested to know if that really turns you off even if you don’t have to use those functions? For example, if one of our existing watches (that you like) also included some smart watch functions – would it turn you off?

    I realise you might feel you are paying for something & not having full advantage, but if the cost was similar to with/without those functions – does it matter?

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    • Personally, a watch that would signal a message on my smartphone or flashing an alarm, or why not a geolocation of this watch, so the wearer, it would please me well (my next project is going to happen, I hope ?). But too much information on too small a screen knowing that I have the same thing on my smartphone, no.

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    • aslong as it didn’t comprimise design or Price then i think why not. its just a case of if you want to use that pot of money to R&D that technology / provide technical support / device compatibility / firmware & software updates / App management and so on.

      to us designers it would open up a new level of creative freedom regardless of the device parenting. if we had the engineering capability who knows what we would come up with. bendable screens, touch functions, voice recognition and eye tracking. the hardware is more exciting than the software.

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    • No I don’t think it would matter. If the smartwatch had the same qualities and features as a traditionally funky and zany TF watch and cost the same price then that would be a massive plus in my book!! My surround sound cost a fair few quid and has many features, I rarely use half of them yet still consider the initial purchase to be well worth the money and who knows, given time and some willingness to learn I may even use the rest of the features. It’s always nice to have them there though. I understand that the TF community may not want a smartwatch as most desire the weird and crazy style of watches, why else would we be here?! But surely there must be room for some kind of Bluetooth connectivity with one or more of your watches? Maybe if the smart features aren’t too popular then if those were stripped away and the watch was maybe evolved into a TFT or OLED screen for much better resolution and colour images then could we not have this as simply a multi-watch? By that I mean…ship the watch with my 5 designs, then Tokyoflash could have a downloadable watch section whereby you can buy online and have the new watch design instantly downloaded onto your watch for a price! It would generate a lot of money for Tokyoflash as I’m sure there would be a great demand for conceptual designs that haven’t made it from the blog into reality and all off these designs are simply going to waste which is a great shame!! It would be easier I’d imagine for TF to simply program these designs for a “smart-ish watch” ready for download rather than creating a brand new watch/strap etc. the costs saved on shipping, packaging etc would be phenomenal. Obviously the % of royalties would decrease also but if many more designs make it to reality then both the financial and creative rewards would be worth it. Naturally you have limitations on what watch designs you could download to your watch based on the shape of your smart-ish watch, you couldn’t have a design like night vision on a square face as it would look odd. There are many possibilities for a watch of this kind…maybe if the full smart features (SMS email phone calls) don’t fully reach out to the TF community then maybe this new downloadable watch function will.
      I would love to hear something official from Tolyoflash about this new venture, do you think this is something that is a possibility or is it merely a pipe dream with no practical implications??

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      • the first open source, community driven smart watch.

        i would say TF make the watch in this case. a singular product would make it eligible for everyone since everyone works from the same template. would also streamline the acceptance of designs for TF. it would purely be UI and Application based. would open this blog up to programmers & UI designers.

        exciting stuff!

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    • TF, strangely it would turn me off if any of the watches I had included smart features. I severely doubt I’d own any of your watches – eight of them in total – if the ones I bought all had these capabilities. Even if they were the same price…it’s just overkill to me. Maybe you think I’m nuts, but something about the added functionality takes away from the fun of the watch. In a way it’s no longer a watch – it’s a whole lot of things, but not one thing. It loses its identity.

      I’ve never been particularly into smart phones or any smart technology. I own a smart phone, but mostly only use it for phone calls and texting. And there’s the other issue, as someone else said: why have another smart device when most of us already own a smart phone? So we can look like Dick Tracy when walking down the street?

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    • Sorry, but it is impossible for me to believe that a smartwatch would not cost more than the same watch without smart capability – extra functionality anyways = more cost. Also, there would always be compatibility issues (e.g. Only working with Android 4.3 or later / iOS 7.1 etc, then when later version of these become available, not working with that).
      All seems pointless to me anyway, cos the watch ‘screens’ are too small and there is a big problem with battery life – all for what I see as pointless technology. Maybe when the technology has matured to the point that the battery life is much longer and you can have the smartphone in the watch with holographic images this would be more interesting, but not for me now.
      I think TF would be best sticking at what it is best at: fantastic looking time keeping art. Don’t get sucked into the Apple / Google compatibility game.

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    • It wouldn’t be possible to have “smart watches functions” on any of my watches.

      If the price was the same/slightly higher, I wouldn’t mind much about paying for something & not having full advantage. But I don’t have a smartphone & don’t plan to buy one.

      1 problem I have with smartphone is that it also depend on the season. In our cold winter forcing us to wear a coat, getting my phone out of a pocket is faster than checking my watch.

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  8. Sorry about the massive chunk of text…for some reason I made paragraphs but my phone decided not to post like that.

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  9. Nice work Pelly, great images and presentation. I can see you put a lot of though and time into this project. Its certainly seems to have provocted reaction, which is a good thing in my book! certainly a lot better than in-difference.

    I have no issues with smart features on a watch as a bonus. I dont know if Id buy the watch for those features but if they are then anyway I wouldnt say no.

    My main gripe with smart watches is future-proofing, will you end up replacing your watch in a years time with the latest one with the new features like you might your phone. Thats not an issue with a regular watch.

    I do love the idea of a watch with changeable displays that you could choose between. Its a topic that has raised its head a couple of times, which only shows it has merit. It would also allow more submitters to have their ideas realised even if it is just a vitual display you can download. Spreads the love (and a little wealth 😉 ) that is for sure. Long may the debate continue! 😀

    Oh yeah 5/Y Best of luck sir! 😀

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  12. Justin, a lot of effort gone into this, as with all the smartwatch designs on the blog. Just doesn’t interest me.
    However, the ‘shattered’ display is very interesting. If you could work that up as a non-smart watch that still enables accurate minute reading, maybe with more colourful display than e-paper, that would grab my money.
    Anyway, definitely worth 5* for the work that has gone in here and good luck grabbing the smart vote.

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  13. Thanks to everyone who has voted and left a comment so far.
    Rather than go through and leave a “cheers” comment under each and every reply ill just leave a great big man-hug right here for you and you can come along and have a platonic cuddle as and when you drop by lol.

    This was an experimental submission really…It started off life as “Shattered” and grew into a smart watch because i was curious and inspired. A few of you have given positive remarks about the shattered design so maybe i will retreat and create a more focused watch based solely on that.

    My thinking on this smartwatch creation when putting it together was….”It’s better to try and fail….than to never try at all”.

    I’m currently slaving away making a few adjustments to a previous submission…I will return with a more TokyoFlashy-esque watch.

    …..I’ll be baaaaaaack!!

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  14. Smart watches ain’t my cup of tea but I like some “time mode” displays but have some suggestions:

    The “Rotation” except that I would prefer if both 1/2 circles would rotate in the same direction.

    The “Cheat code” except that the extra arrows could either point in the same direction of the 1st, or could be clockwise after the 1st. I EX.: ^^^/^>v would = 2.

    A last point about the smart watch: I like that there’s only a few symbols & the rest is text.

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    • Thanks for the support and feedback buddy. Glad you like some of the aspects. I have an idea for rotation for a future stand-alone design but will keep hush about that for now…all I will say is look out for rotation MkII.

      Cheat code actually started off as it’s own project but I bundled it in with the smart watch as I was unsure if it would be popular and be able to stand out by itself…who knows, maybe I’ll turn it back into a single watch design.

      As for the direction if cheat codes arrows I was (and still am) stuck on how to make them an informative yet easy to read display. More work needed at the drawing board for this methinks.

      Anyhoo…ta for your support and watch this space!

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