What’s in store for the future of smartwatches?

So far, 2020 has been a terrible year for most of us. A global pandemic has crippled our society and economy. It has also forced us to change our fundamental biological behaviour, which has been a challenge for many.

Nevertheless, product design hasn’t come to a standstill. Plenty of amazing products have been consecutively announced and launched this year, including the new Apple Watch Series 6. Like with various other products, we’ve taken this opportunity to experiment with the latest technology. Hederik had a keen interest in voice assistants, whilst I have a keen interest in smartwatches and what their future can be.

I initially planned to write a product review on the Apple Watch Series 6, but decided this wouldn’t be ambitious enough. Many comprehensive and in-depth product reviews already exist out there and it isn’t our job to supply another one. Our job is to experiment and to think. And that’s what I’ve done.

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

I used to be (and still am) fascinated with Swiss watches, especially the skeleton versions. There’s something enchanting about the way they work; how every little part is optimised and thought through. Everything in the watch serves a function. In other words, there’s nothing left to take away. According to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, that is the definition of perfection for a designer and I couldn’t agree more. Nevertheless, I was convinced to ditch my beautiful skeleton watches (I still need to apologize to my wife for doing this) and switch to a smartwatch — the Apple Watch Series 1. The Apple Watch Series 1 was the first to successfully convince many traditional watch wearers to transition to a digital smart edition of the watch. Since then, smartwatches have come a long way in competition with traditional watches.

After my first Apple Watch, which was slow and terrible to work with, I switched to a Series 3. Although the Series 3 was an upgrade, I didn’t have a real use case for it. It was nice and helped me to move through the day, but I would’ve survived just fine without that watch to be honest. I mainly used it to keep track of my health or to avoid using my phone while I was on the move. Besides this, I would use it to delete emails I was uninterested in or to check what my next appointment was. I also used it frequently to make payments through Apple Pay since Face ID doesn’t work with masks and my passwords are ridiculously long and complex (it would hurt my fingers if I had to type them out for every payment).

The release of Series 6 convinced me to get an upgrade. There’s a lot to the new Apple Watch, especially from a purely technical point of view. The new sensors are sophisticated and provide actual insight into what you’re doing. But I had another motive for getting this upgrade. Like many others, I gained a lot of weight during the COVID-19 lockdown because I was confined to my desk for long hours as I worked from home and got our new design studio off the ground with Hederik. I decided this needed to change, so I purchased a new road bike and smartwatch to support my transition to a healthier and sportier lifestyle. Both served their purpose and I’m convinced their combination is what still motivates me to cycle 100–200 km a week in-between my busy job as entrepreneur, designer and even busier family life as a father of three daughters (including a twin) and a beautiful, supportive wife.

It got me wondering: is this the future of smartwatches? A health device combined with productivity tools and good old time telling? I used to think this was all to the smartwatch until I upgraded to the series 6. Now I think the future holds a lot more.

Smartwatches used to be either simple in their abilities or slow in executing their functions. It’s now become apparent to me that smartwatches have far greater technological capabilities. Their processors have a lot more power, app developers are getting to know the technology, designers are getting used to the different interaction, etc. Knowing this, it made me seriously consider future domains that the smartwatch could potentially have a huge impact on.

As an aside: There’s probably someone out there who could compute whether or not a smartwatch can beat the computing power of one of the first Apollo Missions. If so, please let me know, it’d be cool to know whether the computer on my wrist can function as a moon explorer.

Preventative healthcare

This is an obvious one. Smartwatches are doing a lot in helping people manage their health and condition. Several research programs consist of collaboration between technology companies manufacturing smartwatches and leading research centres and universities. With all that research data available, it won’t be long before smartwatches will be able to call preventative healthcare APIs and a drastic shift in how our healthcare system works may be approaching.

For example: Single heart rate data points or scans may not be able to point out an underlying condition that is life-threatening in the long-term. However, the combination of different small and large data points may actually help to indicate that an underlying condition is developing. This means that people developing heart or arterial conditions will be able to receive help before the condition becomes life-threatening or irreversible. As a result, this could lead to fewer sudden deaths, cardiac arrests or other cardiovascular emergencies.

This will also apply to other parts of our health as sensors become smaller and more capable. As technology continues to develop, more sensors can be added and devices will become more interoperable. The collective of these sensors and devices are much greater than the sum of their parts, and will enable continuous healthcare and medical innovation. Wearing smartwatches and opting into research actually helps to facilitate this and ensure that people around the world will be able to benefit from an improved and (hopefully) more preventative healthcare system.

Advanced biometric security

Currently, the most advanced security technology can be found in our smartphones: fingerprint IDs or facial recognition combined with specific security chips that encrypt everything in real-time. Some smartphones combine both and technology continues to advance with fingerprint readers integrated into buttons and cameras integrated into displays.

Combine biometric security technology with health sensors — such as ECG, heart rate, oxygen, etc. — and you’ll end up with an incredibly advanced, unlevelled layer of security that is truly unique.

I believe that future smartwatches will be linked to official data such as passports, IDs and licenses. The security offered by traditional means simply cannot match such an advanced combination of top biometric security technologies. Even if someone were to steal it, nothing would happen since the combination of unique patterns cannot be replicated.

Automated environments

Access control systems and automation already use NFC and Bluetooth technologies found in smartphones. During the announcement of iOS 14, Apple reported that iPhones can now be used to gain access to cars. I predict that smartwatches will begin to function more and more as replacements for our wallets instead of phones (to those who are still wondering, phones are already replacing wallets). Phones will still be around, but in order to adequately use phones with such automated systems, you have to take them out, identify yourself and then hold your phone close enough to the reader. This is quite a hassle and smartwatches are more convenient and easier to access for such purposes, especially combined with our earlier prediction about advanced biometric security. Taking off your smartwatch automatically secures it and even if someone else were to put it on, the smartwatch will not unlock as the biometric patterns of a foreign user won’t be recognised.

This opens up a whole range of possibilities to create automated environments, which goes beyond unlocking your computer and car or accessing rooms. Imagine a future where passes are automatically sent to visitors; gaining access to the airport is automated (including the identification and security checks); checking into hotel rooms without having to queue at a reception; automatic identification as you check into a hospital, wherein your health data is automatically uploaded so doctors are well-informed before they start interacting with you.

Pop-up and augmented interactions

Currently, most apps are not specifically designed for smartwatches. Smartwatch apps often duplicate smartphone apps, which they are paired to. Designers and developers seldom think deeply about the design and goals of smartwatch apps. I’m of the opinion that smartphone apps should offer an added value to users rather than simply replicating what a user already has on a smartphone. Replication leads to fads, thoughtful design to engagement.

I believe there is a vast array of opportunities available to so-called pop-up and augmented interactions. Pop-up interactions allow users to access apps without downloading them. Similar to a pop-up store, the interaction is singular and temporary to that particular moment in time. This goes further than clips or limited short interactions since the app’s full interaction is offered to users for a short period of time, without them having to download it.

Augmented interactions add an interactive layer to something physical. This is widely known as augmented reality, where a virtual layer is added to a physical environment through the camera of a smartphone or tablet. However, augmented interactions don’t necessarily require cameras or videos.

Think of the times where you’ve consulted routes or connections while on a train or looked up the nutritional information of a product while in a supermarket. Now make the experience push instead of pull. When standing in front of a supermarket shelf, pulling up your watch will show you the nutritional value of items in front of you. When arriving at a train station, a route will immediately guide you to the correct and best available connecting transportation.

As a side note, these kinds of interactions would definitely fit on smartphones as well. Very topical with current measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic: arriving at a restaurant will automatically and securely register you for contact tracing. You can then pull up the menu, provide your order and pay instantly through your smartphone. This makes interaction far more secure and allows restaurant staff to focus on what is truly important: offering you supreme service.

Conclusion

The smartwatch scene has grown considerably in the past few years and smartwatches are taking a firmer position in the interaction ecosystem between computers, tablets and smartphones. Although they currently serve as a supplement or added level of interaction to smartphones, I envision that they will evolve rapidly and soon exist as a standalone singular touchpoint. The value smartwatches can offer is much greater than what is currently available today and I believe that smartwatches will serve an important role in the future when their potential is harnessed. We’ve only scratched the surface in the smartwatch scene and there is much more to come.