When I saw the headline I actually thought Royal Dutch Shell was making a watch.

It doesn't actually seem that bad, although when i read about it being easy to hold to your ear for private conversations i couldn't help but think of Dom Joly.

It's quite big, and I have huge doubts about it all working as the video (concept) shows.
Where does the camera vanish to on your wrist?
Is there enough space for kinetic charging mechanism via the arms to give any reasonable amperage to actually run the watch let alone the power needed for a phone.

Pie in the sky I would not back it.

Nice idea, but will not take off…. no matter how much like a throwing toy they make it look.

Too large for now, looks quite delicate and I'd have no confidence in that wrist mount holding the expensive thing.

Darkedge
It's quite big

I believe this post qualifies you to the “Understatement of the year” awards finals!

Not only does this look beyond silly, it looks like the … bracket? attachment? thingy? on the wrist strap will bend at the slightest provocation, it's far too large for anyone but the most critically insecure macho-man, and I'm dreading how short the battery life will be. The inclusion of a hand-cranked generator would seem to indicate battery life in the “piss poor” class. I wonder how many minutes you'd have to squeeze that thing for an hour of web browsing. Not that you'd want to browse the web on this, of course. And how do you type? By voice? Bleh.

Valantar

Darkedge
It's quite big

I believe this post qualifies you to the “Understatement of the year” awards finals!

Was just thinking that. Personally I'm a fan of small slim watches. Too small to actually be a useful ‘standalone phone’ device, just get an arm band for your phone if you don't want in in your bag/pocket.

Hey everybody! Do you want to look like a complete tool? Wear our new watch!

The mobile phone has, largely, replaced the wrist watch - I stopped wearing a watch as soon as mobiles had screens showing the time an earlyish Nokia iirc - now, with a misplaced surge of faith in circular tech evolution they're trying to replace the phone with the watch.

Thing is, smartphones really came into their own once the screen size hit 4 inches or more.

Any way you slice it, you're gunna look like a pillock with a 4 or 5 inch screen strapped to your wrist.

Spreadie
The mobile phone has, largely, replaced the wrist watch -

Not for me! Much easier to discretely glance at your wrist than pull out a phone, undo the case, look at the screen and then put it back again!

1

Spreadie
The mobile phone has, largely, replaced the wrist watch - I stopped wearing a watch as soon as mobiles had screens showing the time an earlyish Nokia iirc - now, with a misplaced surge of faith in circular tech evolution they're trying to replace the phone with the watch.

Thing is, smartphones really came into their own once the screen size hit 4 inches or more.

Any way you slice it, you're gunna look like a pillock with a 4 or 5 inch screen strapped to your wrist.

As Peter said, not for me either.

Among the reasons smartwatches have never appealled to me are that, so far, they appear to be butt-ugly, generally cheap and tacky looking, which costing far too much, and I get the distinct sense that, like smartphones, manufacturers are looking to get us replacing them every year or two.

Whereas, a half decent watch will last years, decades even. In fact, I have a pocket watch my grandfather gave me that's well over 100 years old, and still works. I wonder how many smartwatches will become family heirlooms? And end up worth more than they cost to buy?

We must lead very different lives - I've never been in so much of a rush that I cannot afford the three seconds it takes to pull the phone from my pocket to check the time.

But if you are in a meeting, it’s pretty obvious you are checking the time, a glance at a wristwatch is far more discreet, and it’s not just the three seconds removing it from your pocket (not so easy surfing down) it’s opening the case.

Even without that, looking at your wrist is far more economical in movement and you can do it even if carrying something in each hand. It’s just more… efficient.

peterb
But if you are in a meeting, it’s pretty obvious you are checking the time, a glance at a wristwatch is far more discreet, and it’s not just the three seconds removing it from your pocket (not so easy surfing down) it’s opening the case.

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but I can't remember a meeting I've had in the last ten years where I didn't have either a laptop in front on me, a clock on the wall or a laptop screen projected onto a wall (complete with the time in the bottom right corner).

BTW my phone is in a case that doesn't need to be opened. :)

peterb
Even without that, looking at your wrist is far more economical in movement and you can do it even if carrying something in each hand. It’s just more… efficient.

I think that was at the root of my decision to stop wearing a watch - it was only ever singularly useful in a number of occasions so few that it became irrelevant to me. No, that suggests a explicit decision to stop wearing one, when it was more of a realisation i.e. forgetting it one morning and not missing it at all.

Spreadie, in some ways I agree with you. Wearing a watch is …. habit. I've been doing it probably since I was in short trousers.

However … for me, that's only partly true since I work mainly from home, and rarely wear a watch around the house. In part, that's because when I'm at home, the exact time is rarely critical, and when it is, usually a timer, like the oven timer, us set to remind me not to incinerate a cake.

I can even get the notion of using a smartphone as an alternative method for telling the time, though for me, the case for needing a smartphone is far from clear, and I suspect I don't need to explain it.


What I really don't grt, though, is having a smartphone AND a smartwatch. If the watch adequately replaced the phone, then maybe, but the ergonomics of a watch are such that I doubt it'll ever be capable of doing all the things I'd want from a smartphone if I ever give in and get one.

It just seems that in terms of what they (currently) do, cost is too high, functionality too small, and I've yet to see a design I like enough to wear on my wrust without wanting a plastic bag to cover it.



Conversely, fitness monitors (Fitbit, etc) …, well, I can see the point of those and can see me indulging. If it has a watch, syncs with smartphone, etc (data privacy aside) and is nice looking, then the fitness monitoring provides the USP I'd need. Sadly, the medical feedback I get is hadly conducive to the notion that they are accurate, for fitnesx purposes.

Ttouble is, I'm not convinced thst thry aren't more gadget than medical device, and unless they are calibrated, medically certified and provide reliable, accurate and useful data, to me, confidentially, then the USP fails there, too.