A brief look at the history of smartwatches

While there has always been this belief that smartwatches are more of a statement than useful products, the fact that they have been in existence for decades now suggests that the product category has managed to capture at least some of the public's attention. We thought it's a good time to take a brief look at the history of smartwatches to give you an idea about how the market has evolved with time. Samsung SPH-WP10 Launch way back in the year 1999, the SPH-WP10 was essentially a complete phone, worn on the wrist. The timepiece, if you call it, sported a monochrome LCD screen, and came with built in speaker and microphone. Weighing in at 50 grams and having a thickness of 2cm, it was claimed to offer a talk-time of around 90 minutes. Reference & Image source IBM Watchpad Launched in 2001, the Watchpad was jointly developed by IBM and Citizen Watch with an aim to "further explore a new type of personal information access devices for the pervasive computing era." Running Linux 2.4, it sported a QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) LCD, and came with 8MB RAM and 16MB flash memory. The intelligent watch featured calendar software, Bluetooth, and accelerometer. Reference & Image source Fossil Wrist PDA The Fossil Wrist PDA, which was launched in the year 2002, was powered by a 66MHz processor and sported a 160x160 touchscreen display. Running Palm OS 4.1.2, the timepiece had an infrared port and a virtual keyboard, and was able to exchange information with a PC. Reference | Image source Microsoft SPOT series First launched in the year 2004, the Smart Personal Objects Technology(SPOT) series of smartwatches that came in 2006 displayed information like stock quotes, news headlines, traffic, sports scores, and weather. However, they were large in size and the required users to shell out money for service subscriptions. Reference | Image source Sony-Ericsson MBW-150 The MBW-150 came in 2007 and allowed users to wirelessly control music on their Sony-Ericsson phones. The OLED display on the timepiece displayed information like caller ID/number and track details. It also allowed you to change tracks and adjust volume. The watch was not only water resistant, but also vibrated on incoming calls. Reference | Image source LG GD910 The GD910, which was launched in the beginning of 2009, was essentially a wrist-worn phone that sported 1.4-inch touch display and offered text-to-speech capabilities. It was also capable of making voice and video calls and came with a nice Bluetooth hands-free. Reference Samsung S9110 Also Launched in the year 2009 was the S9110, which was also a wristwatch phone that sported a 1.76-inch screen, and offered a built-in speakerphone, Bluetooth connectivity, and speech recognition features - there was, however, no support for video calls. Reference iPod Nano While the iPod Nano, which debuted in 2010, was a great little media player, it could also be worn as a wristwatch when attached to band. Sporting a 1.5-inch 240 x 240 multitouch display, the device, however, didn't provide any typical smartwatch features, but the potential was certainly there. Reference | Image source WIMM watch Launched in the year 2011, the Wimm was an Android-powered smartwatch that sported an LCD display. It offered connectivity over Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi. When paired with your smartphone, it vibrated and displayed caller ID data related to the incoming call. The device's downside was that it was a little too bulky. Reference & Image source Motorola's MotoACTV Also launched in 2011 was the Moto ACTV, which was powered by a 600MHz processor, and packed in GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio. It was capable of tracking your running, walking and cycling, and treadmill stats, as well as measuring heart-rate. The watch was also a smart music player - it could learn which songs made you perform better. Reference | Image source Metawatch Strata The Strata was the second generation Metawatch smartwatch that was launched towards the end of 2012. Sporting a 1.35-inch 96x96 pixel LCD and running FreeRTOS, the feature-rich timepiece offered Bluetooth connectivity and displayed notifications from your smartphone. It also featured modular watch faces loaded with several useful widgets. Reference | Image...