As I was running with my GPS watch today, I was thinking about how much I hate charging it. The darn thing needs to be charged every other time I use it. Then I started thinking about how I would much prefer to wind it, and could you charge a battery with a spring, or even better it could be kinetic. So I googled it and found it has already been done.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...nt-the-worlds-first-kinetic-self-charging-sma

It doesn't look terrible either.

 

Not the best feedback for these watches - some still haven’t received theirs over 2 years later, while for others it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. Interesting idea, but I’ll pass for now. This why I’m always a tad suspicious of Kickstarter projects.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...first-kinetic-self-charging-sma/posts/2633120

 

I would not be interesting in paying what they are asking even if they had good reviews, but I like the idea.

 

TBH I didn’t even look at the price! But yes, I like the idea also.

It’ll be interesting to see if any of the major players venture into the ‘smartwatch’ arena in the years to come. Looking forward to the LE Speedmaster GPS ‘Jog to Mars’ watch

 

Not Kinetic, but Tag has been making a smart watch for 5 years now - Tag Connected watch...

 

There are plenty of good smart watches out there, except you have to charge regularly (which I find really annoying).

 

Yes, as I said it's not kinetic. However it is upgradeable, and has a battery that can be replaced, unlike many smart watches. I don't know what the battery life is on these, but it seems a more upscale watch from a big player...this is the point I was responding to...

 

I see. From their website, the battery lasts for "A full day including 1h sport session." So it does require daily charging. I only use my GPS watch for running, and only wear it for 1-2 hours at a time. Tag does have some nice offerings if you wanted to have a smartwatch that you could wear in all situations.

 

Never understood what the big deal is with charging: I have always charged my smartwatches by simply putting them on their charger when taking them off to go to bed, instead of putting them directly on the nightstand. Not much additional effort.

Regarding a kinetic smartwatch the idea is of course interesting, but running a smartphone processor and operating system simply requires too much power. Or the watch would be enormous and weigh a ton!