Smartwatches are not a new thing. Ever since the Dick Tracy comics depicted him with his two way wrist radio, there are been dreams of a device that could fit on your wrist that would let you do just about anything. There have been multiple attempts to produce a smartwatch over the years including Microsoft SPOT that lasted from around 2006 to 2008. Now several soon to be released smartwatches were recently announced at IFA last week including the Samsung Galaxy Gear and . But do we really need these devices?

One of the biggest differences between past attempts at a smartwatch and these new devices is how they work. Rather than being stand alone devices, the new watches are tied to a smartphone in order to get their data. This makes sense since most of the people who would likely want such a device probably have a smartphone with data contract that allows it to collect data and then route that to watch for display. The most obvious use for this would be for the caller ID to be displayed on the watch of any incoming calls. Another popular application is notifications of calender events and alarms. Each of these can allow the wearer to quickly identify what the alert is without having to dig out the phone. So if these ideas make sense, why do these devices fail to get consumers to buy them?

Fashion

Let’s just get this out of the way right now. The smartwatches that have been presented to us so far are not the type of devices that most people who still wear a watch are looking for. There are several ways in which they don’t appeal to consumers. First, the devices are big. They pretty much have to be in order to contain their color displays, batteries and processors. Large watches are not uncommon in the market as self winding watches tend to need a lot of space for their internal gears. The problem is that they are large enough to look out of place even compared to a traditional watch.

Next there is the materials that the devices are made of. A good watch is generally made of metal and features either a metal band or leather one. All of the smartwatches that are being introduced do use at least some metal for the primary watch body but the bands are where the problem lies. Rather than using leather or metal, they have gone with various forms of plastic. Add to this some very outlandish colors on many of the display models and this looks more like a rather than a high end timepiece that the prices command. I doubt many will wear them to formal occasions.

Function

I already talked about some of the functions that the smartwatches could be used for above but right now I’m just going to focus on the basic features and what they mean for the devices. For instance, the displays on the watches are one of the key features but are also one of the biggest power draws. Samsung features a bright display with a high 320×320 resolution which gives it a nice pixel density. The downside is that this uses so much power that the display has to be turned off so it won’t display any information like the time unless the user taps it to wake it up or it gets woken up by an alert. The Qualcomm Toq on the other hand uses a much lower power Mirasol display. The downside here is that they have been traditional extremely expensive such that they have not made it into many products. This may be one reason why Qualcomm has not mentioned a price for the Toq yet.

Speaking of battery life, a smartwatch does not leave much space for a battery pack. Samsung expects that their Galaxy Gear device will require it to be charged nightly just as one would likely need to do with a smartphone. This can be somewhat impractical for some individuals as they may often wear their watches all day and only take it off at night. Forget to charge it and your smartwatch likely will not be functional the next day. Most smartphones and tablets can typically survive for a couple of days with infrequent use so I would expect that a smartwatch should be roughly the same.

Next we have the questionable choice of including a camera with the Samsung Galaxy Gear. Built into the top portion of the wrist strap for the watch is a 1.9 megapixel camera. This can be used to take still pictures or short 10 second video clips. Why include such a feature? Samsung figures that it can allow a user to take a quick snapshot or short video (for Vine I guess) without having to pull out a camera or smartphone. The problem is that the camera is so inconspicuous to use that many people probably will not even realize that someone looking at their watch is taking a picture of them. I expect that this will lead the device being banned in many private places .

Finally, we come to using the device with voice commands. As being able to place and take a call without having to use the tablet or smartphone is one of the big selling points, it is somewhat expected to have this feature. The problem is that holding ones wrist up to speak to it is not going to be the most graceful ways to interact with it. Now Qualcomm is going to get around this by also selling a set of Bluetooth wireless headsets that can be used for listening to music as well. Of course, why not just have this same headset design and pair it with your smartphone or tablet to do the same functions?

Pricing

Out of the devices announced at IFA 2013 this past week, only one had a price that was announced it. The Samsung Galaxy Gear is expected to cost $299. This is a very high price tag for a device that is essentially an accessory to a tablet or smartphone device. Verizon is allowing people to buy a bundle of the upcoming Galaxy Note 3 (one of the two devices at launch to support the Galaxy Gear) and a Galaxy Gear for $600 with a two year contract. That is twice the cost if you just want the Galaxy Note 3 without the watch.

Now on the other end of the spectrum of smartwatches, is releasing one that is half of the price of the Galaxy Gear. It takes a much more minimalistic approach by primarily being used as a means to notify the wearer of incoming calls and messages. It lacks a color display, touchscreen, microphone or a camera but makes up for this by having a battery that lasts up to seven days. The downside is that this is still a fairly large watch and doesn’t have quite the flexibility of the others in terms of what it can do with applications.

Will I Be Looking to Buy One?

I’m in the minority these days as I still will wear a watch. This makes me a prime target for the companies tying to sell a smartwatch. Frankly, I don’t think many people will be buying these devices because they already carry a smartphone and the cost just isn’t worth it. I certainly am not going to spend as much on a smartwatch as I would a tablet or smartphone. Of the three mentioned in the article, I would most likely get the Pebble but even there I don’t think I would use its features enough over having my basic watch, phone and tablet. With such little interest in the market this may be why Apple, long rumored to be making a smartwatch, has not released a product to date.