Inside a Smart Watch

Currently, there are four companies producing SPOT-enabled watches. Suunto, Fossil, Tissot and Swatch all make Smart Watches of various sizes and styles. The designs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but in essence they all contain the same basic components.

Microsoft worked with National Semiconductor to develop the chipset used in Smart Watches. The chipset consists of an application chip and the tiny DirectBand custom radio receiver chip.

The watch we looked at is the Fossil Abacus. The Fossil Abacus Smart Watch has a rechargeable battery that is charged using a wall charger/watch stand. The photo below shows what we found when we opened up the watch.

• Piezo (piezoelectric ceramic crystal) - This material expands and contracts when electric current is applied. The Piezo crystal in the watch acts as a tiny speaker driver, allowing the Smart Watch to generate sound.
• PCB (printed circuit board) - A PCB is usually a multi-layered board made of fiberglass. The surface and sublayers use tiny copper lines to direct electricity to various components on the PCB. Motherboards, SIMMs and credit-card memory are all examples of PCBs. The PCB in the Smart Watch houses the CPU, memory and radio chip.
• CPU - The Smart Watch is basically a tiny computer with a very specific job, and the CPU is the brains of that computer. The Smart Watch uses an ARM 7 TDMI as its central processor.
• Memory - Also like a computer, the Smart Watch needs memory to perform its functions. The Smart Watch uses 512 KB of ROM and 384 KB of RAM.
• DirectBand radio receiver chip - This chip was made specifically for the Smart Watch and is how the MSN Direct service connects to the watch. These chips are the heart of SPOT technology.
• Battery - The Smart Watch battery is rechargeable. The Fossil Abacus comes with a recharging stand, but other models use an adapter that plugs into the wall. The amount of time you get out of each charge varies greatly and depends on how much "channel surfing" you do (and on the model of Smart Watch you buy). The Abacus can function for up to two days on a single charge.
• Inductive charging coil - This is used to charge the battery. The coil is attached to the contact surface on the back of the watch. When this surface comes in contact with the charging plate on the watch stand, the Smart Watch battery is charged through induction.

Abacus Smart Watch on its charging stand

It will certainly be interesting to see if SPOT technology becomes integrated into our everyday lives in the years to come. The SPOT team continues to work toward applying SPOT technology in a variety of objects as well as expanding its current functionality.

Bill Mitchell, founder and general manager of the Microsoft Smart Personal Objects Technology group, had this to say about the future of SPOT:

... it's important to remember that the goal of SPOT is not to create new devices but to take devices that have a proven usefulness and make them more functional. It's also important to remember that in the future, SPOT devices will not just be isolated displays of information. We foresee a time when SPOT devices, PCs and other computing devices will interact with each other seamlessly.

For more information on Smart Watches, SPOT technology and related topics, check out the links on the next page.