Sony has secretly crowd-funded a minimalist smartwatch which utilises e-paper technology most commonly used in Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.
A Sony spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the firm was developing a number of products with electronic paper in a project called “Fashion Entertainments”, one of which is a smartwatch.
The product was added to a crowdfunding site under the name FES watch as the Japanese firm wanted to see if the product had “real value” without the branding of a major electronics company.
So far the project has raised just shy of £19,000 in less than three weeks with those funding it set to receive prototypes in May 2015.
Advantageous to Sony is the fact its smartwatches will have much greater battery life than the charge-once-a-day Apple Watches due to the low energy usage of e-paper products.
A team of five Sony employees were tasked with turning e-paper into fashionable – and wearable – items. The firm is also developing e-paper bow-ties and hat accessories.
While the FES watch has been dubbed a minimalist piece, the other end of the market will surely be inhabited by Apple’s solid gold smart watch.
