Sony’s elegant e-Paper watch is a product we can get behind
Whenver a big-name manufacturer creates something radical or different, the pressure from shareholders, fans and the general public can be soul crushing. That’s probably the reason why Sony resorted to stealthily releasing their e-Paper timepiece under a different company, namely Fashion Entertainments, which is a group of Sony employees hunting for ways to utilize e-Paper in the fashion industry, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal.
The premise is simple – the FES watch is a timepiece that’s built with e-Paper, allowing it to change the design of the face of the watch as well as the strap to several presets quickly. It’s an elegant and simple way to use the unique properties of e-Paper, and Sony wanted the merit of the idea to stand on its own without the company’s reputation muddling things.
“We hid Sony’s name because we wanted to test the real value of the product, whether there will be demand for our concept,” a person involved in the project said.
It seems that they’ve succeeded. The company has put up the unique watch on the Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake, and as of writing the has already hit its funding goal of 1 million yen.
While it’s relatively low tech compared to the other efforts of other companies like Pebble, its elegance and simplicity makes it a desirable piece of tech for both fashionistas and geeks alike.
