Alphabet's Verily working on high-end health-focused smart watch

Google's sister company Verily is working on a new health-monitoring smart watch that can keep track of an assortment of metrics that go beyond what most wearables are capable of. The discovery came from an MIT Technology Review reporter who spotted the watch on Brian Otis, Verily's chief technical officer. Reporter Antonio Regalado was allowed to inspect it and he learned the watch is capable of measuring "pulse, heart rhythm, skin temperature, light [and] noise." The watch’s outer ring acts as an electrocardiogram, but Otis would not say how it works.

Health and activity tracking is becoming big business in the wearables market. It is the biggest driver of wearables sales today, although most companies tend to focus on athletics and not general-purpose health monitoring. Athletes might be more willing to buy expensive technology products to keep themselves in peak condition. China makers have been doing their best to bring down the price on some of this technology, although premium activity tracking devices from the likes of Garmin still do not come cheap.

Google and Verily parent Alphabet seems to have something different in mind. It has long coveted a position in the health care market on the data side, but now it seems to be using Verily, an offshoot from Google, to get into the market using consumer technology. Verily is also the company working on smart contact lenses that monitor glucose levels. Since Alphabet trades mainly in data, wearables could help it accumulate valuable user health information that would have been legally difficult to acquire through partnerships thanks to strong regulation.

Getting people to keep using a wearable can be tricky, though. One of the possible pain points in wearables is battery life. The Verily watch, which is now on its second generation, uses an E ink screen so users do not have to charge it every day. Beyond that, no specifications for the watch are revealed. This is not something that will rival the Apple Watch or Android Wear watches. This is meant to be a simpler device, although one that might be costly given all the technologycrammed in.