Smartwatches and other wearables are one of the big up and coming product categories. You can bet that most every major consumer electronics company will attempt to offer a smartwatch of some sort. Some will be more popular than others and a new patent application has surfaced that shows Microsoft has been working on its own smartwatch.

The patent application, spotted by Patent Bolt, shows an interesting device that has a cool feature not seen in other wearables. That feature is that the smartwatch electronics that can be removed from the band and attached to other accessories. Those other accessories might include a charging cradle that doubles as an alarm clock.

Here’s the patent background from the filing:

Portable electronic devices of increasingly small form factors have been developed recently which are tailored for use during exercise and outdoor activities. These devices may include GPS systems, altimeters, and stopwatches, for example, and may track a user’s speed, position and time while running, bicycling, skiing, etc. One problem with such devices is that they are exposed to the user’s perspiration, and can become soiled. Some prior devices have incorporated removable hook and loop fastener fabric wristbands that are washable; however, removing the fasteners for washing can be cumbersome and cause wear and tear on the band as it is repeatedly inserted and removed from securing ring, for example. Another problem with such devices is that they typically do not present the user with information during exercise other than time and position information. Users have been forced to connect external heartbeat sensors, for example using a chest strap, to obtain biometric feedback during exercise. The use of multiple components in this manner can be bulky and make exercise awkward. As a result, the adoption of such portable electronic devices during exercise is not as widespread as it could be.

The watch also has fitness features with a heart rate monitor and more. Other tidbits hinted at by the patent include a music player, messaging service, and some sort of phone capability.

[Patent Bolt via ITproportal]

Apparently, anything that’s made out of wood is good. This is also true of Tokyoflash’s new watch, which appears to be encased completely in wood. It’s all rustic, and ready to go camping!

The Tokyoflash Kisai Night Vision Wood LED Watch has no hands, and looks completely blank when turned off. Its LCD screen is concealed beneath its wooden surface. They shine through to display the time. It has all of the usual functions, with a light-up animation. You can choose between dark sandalwood or maple, and blue, red, or green LEDs.

Reading the time is surprisingly straightforward. The hour is highlighted by its absence from the LED circle, while the minutes are actually displayed in stylized numbers. The watch is easy to read, once you get the system.

The $109 (USD) launch price for the Kisai Night Vision watch is good until just 10pm Eastern Time tonight, after which point its price will go up to its normal retail price.

[via Tokyoflash]

Do you find that you are always late, no matter what the occasion? If so, then this watch is for you. The numbers are all jumbled near the bottom. Why? Because it doesn’t really matter.

To this watch, I say, “whatever, I don’t wear a watch.” But if you still want one, head on over to Fizzm, where you can pick one up for $95(USD).

[via RedFerret]

We’ve featured a couple of LEGO Mindstorms clocks. Etsy shop Make It Brick It’s version of a LEGO clock is much simpler, but it’s more practical. Make It Brick It also gives you the option of having it shipped as a kit or pre-assembled.

The clock is made of 277 LEGO pieces and a clock mechanism that requires an AA battery. If you choose the kit version, it will be sent to you with a manual and a gift-ready wooden box.

You can order the LEGO clock from Make It Brick It. The kit version costs about $98 (USD) while the pre-assembled clock costs about $126.

[via The Gadget Flow]

There’s a good reason for biometric security, since it ensures that most of your information on your devices or computer doesn’t get stolen or swiped too easily. Using your eyes as your password is the stuff of science fiction and spy movies, which is why this watch is so cool.

Iritech’s FiDELYS smartwatch gets paired with your phone, and allows you to interact with incoming calls, text messages, and other functions. It also has a built-in camera that will have an iris recognition capability, meaning that you could unlock your device with your eyes, freeing your from entering a passcode. The device will also tie to your computer or smartphone, providing iris-based authentication for websites and applications.

The watch offers Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC wireless support, as well as a heart rate sensor, pedometer and wireless charging. Instead of using a touchscreen, you’ll interact with the watch clicking on the outside of its bezel.

The FiDELYS smartwatch will be launched through an Indiegogo crowdfunding project soon, with a pre-launch price of about $250(USD) – a $50 discount off its planned retail price.

[via Digital Trends]

If there’s one thing we never saw anyone in the Star Wars movies doing, it was checking their wrist for the time. That’s so unrealistic. It’s not like they had smartphones with clocks on them either. For instance, how did Boba Fett know what time to meet Jabba to deliver Han Solo? Clearly he should have had a watch so he could get there on time.

Can you imagine what Jabba the Hutt would do to you if you showed up late to a meeting? He’d at least slobber all over you. Fortunately for you, this Boba Fett wristwatch is readily available, and will ensure you’re always on time to the sand barge.

So fire up your backpack jets and head over to ThinkGeek, where you can grab this timepiece for just $29.99(USD).

This Game Boy timer will come in handy in the kitchen. I could have used one of these back in the day, to let me know when to change the batteries in my actual Game Boy. It could have alerted me every ten minutes or so.

It only plays one game and that is keeping track of time. When is the meat loaf going to be done? I don’t know, check the Game Boy. Meat loaf again? This Game Boy-inspired digital timer has a magnet on back for sticking it on your fridge. Use it to time your meals, keep track of how long the kids have been playing their Nintendo 3DS, or just have it to remind you of your old portable.

It is only $17.99(USD) from Amazon.

[via Dude I Want That]

Astrophysicists will probably hate the Ptolemaic timepiece, but if you still believe the Earth is at the center of the universe, you’ll want to grab one.

Regardless of its complete scientific inaccuracy, it’s still kind of cool to watch the stars, planets, Sun and Moon orbiting around as you watch time pass. At least they got the Moon part right – except the part where it’s not actually a crescent cut-out.

Crash land your Ship of the Imagination into The Unemployed Philosophers’ Guild if you want one. It’s just $37.95(USD). Me, I’m sticking with my Copernican clock.

While it’s illegal to spray-paint graffiti in most places, as far as I know, there’s no law against painting with light. And while you’re not going to be creating any masterworks with this spray can, you’ll at least be able to tell the time.

GamaGo’s Spray Paint Clock looks just like a can of Krylon, but instead of spraying paint when you press the button, it projects the current time on the wall. As an added bonus, time has a tendency to last longer than paint.

Shake up a browser and head over to Amazon where you can grab a can for just $18.88(USD).

Own a piece of Star Wars history on your wrist with this beautiful watch. It contains sand from the Tunisian set where the Tatooine scenes were filmed.

The Tunisian sand is sealed inside the case and it even moves around as you move your wrist. Plus, the watch face looks pretty cool. The case is made of solid 316L medical-grade steel with Seiko-Epson quartz movements and leather bands. The funds raised will be used to make the watches, and will also help restore and preserve the crumbling sets in Tunisia. So it is a good geeky cause even aside from getting a cool watch. You see, some of the sets are at risk of being swallowed by sand dunes.

This Kickstarter is fully funded, but there is still time to pledge and get your own watch for just $77(USD). This second edition of watches will be the last, so get one while you can.

[via psfk via Fashionably Geek]

Darth Vader was a very serious guy. I can only imagine he would be more than willing to Force choke the crap out of someone for being late. No one on the Super Star Destroyer Executor wore a watch, but if they did I imagine they would have looked something like these Star Wars Imperial Chronometers.

There are two versions of this watch and they are functionally identical. Both have black cases and a black rubber band. Etched on the face of the red watch is a silhouette of Vader’s helmet. On the white version of the watch, you’ll find the silhouette of a stormtrooper.

The watches use Japanese movement and are officially licensed Star Wars gear. Each of these watches sells for $129.99(USD) and they are available to purchase now on ThinkGeek.

Apple today revealed it’s long-anticipated entry into the wearable tech space, with its first ever smartwatch. No longer dubbed “iWatch,” the timepiece is named simply “Apple Watch“. The watch is designed to be the most accurate watch available, incredibly customizable, and work seamlessly with iPhone, health and fitness apps.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Apple watch is its striking industrial design. While Apple chose to go with a rectangular face, the watch has curvaceous surfaces, and a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal front which appears to blend seamlessly into the metal case of the watch. It’s also not big and clunky like some other smartwatches on the market. It actually looks like it’s the size of a normal watch. Its touchscreen is unique in that it not only detects touches, but can detect pressure, so it can differentiate between a tap and a press.

The watch offers a totally new user interface, not a tiny version of iOS. Apple worked hard to create a unique UI which is ideally suited to the tiny screen of a watch, and in large part I think they’ve succeeded. Instead of supporting gestures like pinch-zoom on its touchscreen, the watch uses its “digital crown” control on the side to provide contextual input methods such as zooming in and out, adjusting sliders, or scrolling up and down. This means you won’t be blocking the interface with your fingertip nearly as often as with other smartwatches. A simple push of the crown returns you to the home screen.

Speaking of the home screen, it features a sort of cloud of apps which you can tap to access. At the center is the watch function, of course, and if you have more apps installed than will fit on one screen you can drag to view apps beyond the screen’s boundaries. There’s also a UI convention called “glances,” which give you quick access to information, like current weather, your next appointment, music and media remote control.

Simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to view your glances. The watch is also smart enough to only turn on when you turn your wrist and raise it to view the display, which should reduce battery drain.

In terms of features, the Apple Watch seems jam-packed for such a tiny device. Naturally, it’s a watch, and syncs its time up to the National Atomic clock to ensure accuracy within +/- 50 milliseconds. It comes pre-loaded with numerous watch faces, ranging from analog, to digital, to informational, to decorative. I especially like the astronomy face, which shows current positions of planets, a sort of nod to analog watches with these sort of complications.

The watch also packs a haptic feedback system, called the “Taptic Engine”, which combines tiny vibrations with sound from the speaker to provide feedback from the watch. This is especially useful for notifications, as it can provide silent taps as well. Speaking of notifications, the prompts which appear on screen are contextual, based on the type of notification, offering quick replies for messages, and let you choose from text, voice, or animated emoji responses.

Naturally, Siri is built in, and accessed by pressing in on the digital crown for a little longer. While the screen might be small, Siri provides quite a bit of functionality, returning detailed results such as movie times, descriptions and GPS directions. Other primary apps include weather, traffic, photo browsing, and of course health and fitness. The Maps app is particularly neat, offering turn-by-turn directions and unique haptic sensations to indicate which way to turn. The phone also offers support for Apple Pay, their newly-announced NFC-based payment system.

Using the built-in accelerometer and paired with the GPS and Wi-Fi capabilities of the iPhone, the watch can track activities such as walking, running, cycling, or more. It can also track calories burned, and even the time you spend standing each day. The Zirconia watch back contains infrared LEDs and cameras to accurately monitor your heart rate.

The health and fitness apps encourage goal-setting and can help you on track on a daily basis. Data captured by the watch is automatically synced with iOS 8’s health and fitness apps, providing long-term tracking and charting as well as access for other related apps.

Another feature of the Apple Watch is something called “Digital Touch.” This allows you to have one-on-one conversations with friends, sending haptic touches by tapping on the screen, real-time doodles, or even sending your heartbeat. Okay, that’s just plain weird. Apple is calling this a revolutionary new way to communicate, though it seems a little gimmicky to me. Who knows. I probably thought email and text messaging was gimmicky once.

Beyond the built-in apps, the Apple Watch will support 3rd-party apps, and Apple will soon be providing their WatchKit SDK to developers to start building apps. Examples of 3rd-party apps shown so far include BMW’s electric car charging status app, which also offers GPS directions back to your car, as well as a Honeywell app for setting your home climate control system remotely.

While Apple hasn’t said anything about battery life, they did recognize that people will want to wear the watch all day long, and are offering an easy charging method, which combines a quick MagSafe-style connector with wireless charging. This should make lazy bedside charging stupid simple.

Apple will be offering its watch in a number of different configurations, including the Apple Watch, which has a stainless steel case, the Apple Watch Sport, with a lightweight anodized aluminum case, and the Apple Watch Edition, a schmancy 18-karat gold model. There’s no word yet on water or shock resistance, but I can’t imagine that Apple hasn’t given this some thought.

You’ll be able to choose from 38mm or 42mm case size. There will also be a wide variety of bands available, including a durable sport band, a modern leather loop band, traditional look leather and stainless steel link bands, as well as a stainless steel mesh band. The more contemporary bands use a magnetic closure, which not only looks cool, but provides easy adjustability. Personally, the design below is my favorite:

One thing to keep in mind is that Apple says the Apple Watch will require the use of an iPhone 5 or later. It’s unclear if your iPhone must be in proximity at all times, or if some features will continue to work if your iPhone isn’t close by. Apple hasn’t revealed full pricing or release date details on the Apple Watch line as of yet, but says that prices will “start at $349″ and the watch will be available in “Early 2015.”

While everyone else is talking about, waiting for or hating on the Apple Watch, Tokyoflash just keeps on keeping on. The watchmaker’s latest release is the Kisai Maze Wood, a wooden version of the Kisai Maze. In Maze mode, the watch displays the time as gaps in a maze. It’s not that hard to figure out, but it’ll still get quizzical looks.

Maze mode also gives you has an optional animation, in which a block runs around the display as if looking for the way out. The watch also has a Digital mode, aka Why Did You Even Buy a Kisai mode, that just plain displays the time.

The Kisai Maze Wood comes in three color schemes. There’s one with a green LCD and a dark sandalwood frame, one with a red LCD and a maple wood frame and one with a silver LCD and a dark sandalwood frame.

Find your way to Tokyoflash’s online store and pre-order the Kisai Maze Wood for $99 (USD). This price is only valid for a limited time – until Friday September 12th at 11am Japan time, after which it will jump up to the regular retail price.

Watches can be really cool, and a good watch can elevate a guy’s attire from good to gooooooood. The problem is that really cool ones often , like the Maurice LaCroix Roue Carrée Seconde (my personal favorite), often have really uncool price tags (like the Roue Carree’s $9,900 price tag). Timex’s $50 Weekender standby is all good, but it’s still missing that special je ne sais quoi. Domeni Co., which is now crowdfunding on Kickstarter, is aiming to fix that.

Dominick Cullari named Domeni Co. after his grandfather Domenico, who passed his own watch down and started a lifelong obsession with watches that began with doodling them when the other kids “doodled cars or shoes.” Now, after a ton of sketches and a lot of thought, the first Domeni Co. watch has been designed and is set to hit the market soon. Early backers can pick one up for $135, after which the price will jump to $165. The watches will run $215 at retail. No, it’s not Timex cheap, but it is within most people’s range for a special occasion. Luckily, it looks and sounds every bit like a much more expensive watch.

The Domeni Co. Signature Series features a 316L stainless steel 40mm case, a gold-plated Swiss-made Ronda 1069 six-jewel movement, either a Milanese steel mesh or leather band, and water resistance to 50 meters (Roughly 164 feet). Yeah, that sounds like the price would involve a few more Benjamins.

[via Kickstarter]

Pebble has announced that it has released the latest firmware for its smartwatch bringing the software to version 2.5. The update brings with it a myriad of fixes and improvements, but the big thing is support for emoji. You know what emojis are, the little pics and icons we make when we text.

With the new firmware installed on the Pebble, users will be able to view emoji icons right on the screen of their watch. The most popular emoji icons are supported now, with support for more coming later.

Along with the emojis also comes magnetometer support enabling compass and way-finding apps to be designed for the smartwatch. Support for iOS 8 was also baked into the new firmware. Pebble will work with Android or iOS devices.

Like TokyoFlash, Canadian watchmaker Division Furtive makes watches that put more emphasis on form than function. The company’s newest watch is the Type 50, a button- and crown-less timepiece that uses light to both display and set the time.

The Type 50 is actually the second watch of its kind from Division Furtive, predated by the now phased out Type 40. Both watches use two LED tracks to tell the time – one for hours and one for minutes. The watch also has additional modes such as a calendar, a chronometer and even a flashlight. But because the watch has no buttons, you cycle through its modes by tapping on its face. Division Furtive made a chart that tells you how many taps it takes to switch to a certain mode… and then put that chart on the back of the watch.

To save on battery, the Type 50’s LEDs light up only when you flick your wrist to view the watch face. The Type 40 displayed the time only when it was angled precisely at 45º in front of you. Thankfully, that was too quirky even for Division Furtive, so it made the Type 50 more forgiving. As long as you move your wrist to check it, the Type 50’s LEDs will turn on and display the time.

Pledge at least about $220 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Type 50 watch as a reward. Your move, Tokyoflash.

Smartwatches are imminent, but they’re not quite useful enough yet to have become any more than a niche product for hardcore tech geeks, much like Google Glass. Personally, if I were to drop a few hundred dollars on a watch, it would be an analog watch that will be in style for roughly a century, not a tech piece that will be made obsolete in a few months.

That said, a classic timepiece can’t play all of my favorite Nintendo Game Boy games, and the Android Wear can. I’d love to be rocking Castlevania, Tetris, and Jurassic Park (my first video game) on my wrist, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Sadly, this does require a controller to be attached to the watch, so it’s not genuinely useful yet, but it is a cool proof-of-concept. A well made slide-out d-pad on one side and two buttons that could serve as A and B on the other could do the trick.

I’m sure that a watch made with gaming in mind is a thing that some smart designer is working on, and I’m looking forward to seeing it, even if I do just end up buying that Maurice Lacroix I’ve been eyeing.

[via YouTube]

I’m a big fan of Marvel movies, even if I am unfamiliar with the comic book origins of the franchise. Take Deadpool for instance – all I know of him is what I saw in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine flick. I know he is damn good with a sword and likes to make obnoxious jokes.

If you are a Deadpool fan, check out the Deadpool clock complete with a pendulum that has two swords and a Deadpool style mask painted on it. The one thing I am surprised the clock lacks is Katana swords for the hands.

The clock has no numbers, so be prepared to stare at it for a second trying to figure out what time it is. The clock sells for $29.99(USD) and is available for pre-order from Entertainment Earth.

[via Nerd Approved]

J. M. De Cristofaro aka Johngineer must be having a great week. He recently shared his custom made wristwatch, the ChronodeVFD, and its simple yet eye-catching design has earned the approval of the Internet, including no less than the cyberpunk lord William Gibson. One look at it and you’ll see why it’s gone viral.

Johngineer designed his watch around a vacuum fluorescent display or VFD. Like Nixie tubes, VFDs have been made obsolete by LEDs, but they’re still used in some electronic devices because they are cheap, bright and durable. The specific VFD that Johngineer used is a Soviet surplus called IVL2-7/5. It’s a small and flat tube with a transparent backing and uses relatively little power. I say relatively because according to Johngineer the watch lasts only a few hours on a single AA battery. The watch is controlled by an ATMega 88 AVR and tells the time using a DS3231 I2C real time clock.

The ChronodeVFD also has a light sensor, a barometer and an accelerometer, though Johngineer has left them unactivated for now. A brass “roll cage” protects the display and gives the watch a steampunk character. Johngineer used a simple leather cuff as a strap.

Head to Johngineer’s blog for more details on his watch, and perhaps even convince him to make more of it for sale.

[via Gadgetify]

Geeky watches are fun, but the problem is that they can cross into dorky territory very easily. This new watch from ThinkGeek, however, manages to just look like a sleek, minimalist, modern watch. If it didn’t have “NCC-1701″ proudly printed on the face we’d have never guessed that it was a piece of Star Trek geekdom. The seller promises that you’ll be able to “boldly go, and get there on time.”

This Star Trek-inspired watch is battery powered, and built solidly with a 45mm stainless steel case. The band is fake leather (sadly), but it is a nice design in a light grey with a red accent. Hey, you can only ask for so much at $119.99(USD). While the lack of numbers around the dial is a pet peeve of mine, it does at least have radial lines that should help people figure out what time it is. The worst thing is a watch that is impossible to read (Ahem, TokyoFlash).