If you were to ask a group of children what a smartwatch of the future could look like, what do you think they would say? Well, Curry’s, a British electrical retailer, did. They discovered that many kids imagine a world where smartwatches have features like holograms, mood sensors and even time-travel capabilities.
At this moment in time, we can purchase smartwatches that at a swipe of a finger will connect us to your friends, give us access to our photos, music collection and what our heartbeat. The young artist’s thought-provoking drawings is proof that the next generation smartwatch will not only be a portable way of telling the time, but it will also soon become the kind of device that we never imagined possible.
Exploring Our Horological Destiny
The future of next-generation smartwatches looks exciting thanks to kid’s like 12-year old Karina Davies, who believes that future smartwatches will be able to offer features like time-travelling. She thinks that your watch should be a device that can whisk you through time and space. “My watch takes you to the past, present and future,” writes Karina Davies.
Then there is 10-year old Mason Carruthers, who came up with a watch that looks like a Fitbit. Explaining how his dance watch would work, Mason said: “You point your watch at your friends,” Mason writes, “and it can play their favourite song.” He continues, “There’s a button to trigger the lights, a fully-fledged dancing app and an option to – get this – call for pizza. No matter where we are in the far-flung future, there’s no turning away from delicious pizza”.
We also loved the sound of the World Wide Watch by 11-year old Reneh Miller. Her illustrations show how the future could bring about a watch that has a holographic projector and self-charging abilities. “The hologram makes it easy to speak to friends, while the watch charges any time you’re not using it”, said Reneh. A brilliant idea. Who wouldn’t want to say goodbye to cables or charging docks? What’s more, she’s packed in teleportation, shapeshifting, knowledge acquisition and even the ability to change the weather.
Other fantastic ideas included the Amigo 3000 watch, an AI assistant that can see and talk and travel anywhere by Benjamin Long. A watch called Spacecore 2.28 that can translate any language, and it can fit any wrist thanks to a “lightweight SpaceCore mouldable magnetic material” by Thomas Mowatt. With all the hallmarks of an engineer, Thomas’ idea has features built into the watch strap. “There’s a ‘volumaniser’ to turn anything up or down and a lie-meter that flashes when someone’s telling a fib, and a feature dubbed MOOD that can make you a lot happier with just the touch of a button”, shared Thomas.
Grand ideas? Maybe. But the future of wearable tech needs open minds that are capable of imagining that ideas like holograms, mouldable magnetic materials and mood sensors can be entirely within our reach.
Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.