Seiko debuts e-paper wristwatch

Seiko Epson has been promising they'd be rocking the e-paper, and they've finally put out. It isn't exactly the foldable, electronic newspaper of the future, but it's at least something unique in the arena of timepieces. They partnered with the Seiko Watch corporate division to develop a wristwatch whose display, made of e-paper, shows a constantly changing mosaic pattern along with the conventional time display. Seiko Epson hooked up with the E Ink corporation in the US to develop the display, which combines E Ink's electrophoretic paper with Seiko's driver interface to produce a monochrome display with a contrast ratio of 10:1. Look for units to roll out to the public in Japan sometime this year.

[Aphaits @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

ooo, I'd like to see this kind of watch designed by Philippe Starck :)

[Davie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm being pedantic, but surely this is e-ink and not e-paper. E-Paper looks like normal paper but has microscopic markers in it that represent a unique location (GUID type unique) on the paper wrt to the universe, allowing you to 'cheaply' print forms, brochures and such like where user input can be relayed to you instantaneously using a 'smart pen' connected to the internet etc.

e-ink on the other hand lets you control the content (i.e. text) displayed on some cheap lightweight device.

my 2p worth

Davie in Dubai

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

but how much does it cost?? i'd wear one.

[Forrest @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

With the two button near the display - it looks like they'd be able to fit Pong on there.

[Permanent4 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

THAT is what those SPOT watches ought to look like.

[gnome @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

How long until I can get an entire suit made out of this? Or better yet, a muu-muu.....

[donkeymon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Dave in Dubai: It's not ink, it's paper! electronic paper! The whole point of this is that there is no ink involved, unlike with your e-paper. And there's really nothing electronic about the paper that's just a map of a big piece of paper. Nobody wants that. They want flexible non-luminescent displays. That's what should be called e-paper. that other stuff should be called something else, because no one wants it. Really I think that this stuff needs a new name, in the same way that paper needed a new name when it was invented, instead of being called "clay tablet made out of trees."

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

"With the two button near the display - it looks like they'd be able to fit Pong on there."

In the future, everything will have pong built in. Boredom will be *that* omnipotent.

[jmg_bt21 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Pong? It screams TETRIS... SPOT? what is SPOT? *bleh*

[John C @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Makes you look like Wonder Woman (even if you are a guy) :-)