A month after the E-Ink FES concept watch got people excited about an innovative wearable that didn’t care if it wasn’t particularly smart, rumours that Sony was working on a similar e-ink timepiece started to swirl. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Sony was behind the FES watch concept all along, and it’s just one of a few concepts the electronics giant has been working on for future wearables.
It turns out FES — or Fashion Entertainments startup — is actually a subdivision of Sony responsible for conceptualising, designing and experimenting with different materials to help revolutionise the next-generation of wearable devices. The FES watch obviously prioritises fashion over function, it doesn’t do notifications and isn’t connected to anything, but its use of e-ink means it can run for almost two months on a single battery which is something the current crop of smartwatches can only dream about.
And while there are no definitive plans to put the FES watch into production, it’s rumoured it could still see the light of day sometime next year, at least in Japan. So it seems like Sony has finally found a use for all those unsold ereaders. [Wall Street Journal via The Verge]