Sony announced an update to the curious-looking FES Watch with a new design.
The FES Watch U features an e-ink display and pairs with your phone. But the surprising part is that the band is also a flexible e-ink display, opening a brand new world of design possibilities — what an exciting time to be alive.
Sony is using the FES brand name for this watch as the company wants to emphasize the fashion aspect of the watch. While it’s a bit too big for my taste, it’ll definitely stand out compared to the Pebbles and Apple Watches out there. With the press of a button, the entire style of the watch changes, band included.
Due to the e-ink display, the band is thicker than a traditional leather, plastic or textile band.
For the black model, Sony uses premium material, such as steel and sapphire glass for the watch body — other models use glass. Thanks to the e-ink displays, the battery lasts for up to three weeks. The watch is also waterproof.
The company will ship 12 different watch face and band designs with the watch. You will be able to store 24 different designs on your watch. Let’s hope that the community or Sony itself will release more designs in the future.
Let’s talk about the more problematic part now. It doesn’t seem like Sony plans to sell this watch outside of Japan. Sony is doing a crowdfunding campaign to see whether people are interested in buying it. But don’t get your hopes up, as the original FES Watch was never released outside of Japan.
It’s not common to see e-ink on a Watch, have you seen e-readers to read e-books? No? Take a look to our article in which we compare reading on tablets vs e-readers.
