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Matrix adds a solar cell to its battery-free smartwatch
In announcing the third in its range of battery-free smartwatches, Matrix Industries is going where few others have gone before. Whereas the first two PowerWatches relied upon thermocouples to generate power, the new model has two different ways to get energy. As well as drawing a charge from the heat on your wrist, the PowerWatch 2 will harvest solar radiation to keep itself going.
Matrix PowerWatch hands-on: The promise of a world without chargers
When Matrix co-founder Douglas Tham handed me my review unit of the PowerWatch, I had to fight the instinct to ask for a charger. This thermal-powered wearable doesn't need one -- it gets energy by converting your body heat into electricity. It's been a year since I saw an early prototype of the PowerWatch -- a smart(ish) watch that tracks basic fitness metrics. Now, the self-proclaimed energy-harvesting company is finally ready to ship PowerWatches to the early adopters who backed its Indiegogo campaign. I spent some time with this first-generation watch in all its chunky, rugged glory and, while I still wish it were smaller and did more, I find its potential compelling.
The PowerWatch is a body heat-powered smartwatch that does very little
One of the biggest problems with smartwatches is avoiding a dead battery. Whether it's forgetting to plug them in in time or having to fiddle with the unwieldy magnetic disk chargers, keeping a wearable juiced up is not as convenient as it should be. With that in mind, startup Matrix Industries devised a way to harness our body heat to power smartwatches, and its technology is making its debut in the PowerWatch. I had a chance to try out an early prototype of the device, and though it did indeed work, it only offered very basic functions.
