In this report we delve into the various parts and components that go into making a smart watch.
Since wearables became a viable market in 2012, a growing number of leading consumer electronics companies have joined the business. The imminent release of the Apple Watch has brought the industry a much bigger profile in the consumer market.
China plays an important role in this industry, as it is both the biggest market and the largest manufacturer of the devices. Over 80 percent of wearable electronics products are manufactured in Shenzhen. Moreover, many upstream suppliers, such as Qualcomm, MTK, CSR, Texas Instruments and InvenSense have put a lot of resources in the hands of their wearable device component design and manufacturing teams.
Smart watches are the most popular type of wearable product on the market today; according to research firm IDC, over 60 percent of wearable products are smart watches.
Smart watches can be divided into the following four categories:
1. Sports: Functions include pedometer, calorie consumption, weather forecast, compass and GPS
2. Health: Feature heart rate monitoring, body temperature monitoring and sleep monitoring
3. Security: Include GPS, SOS, emergency communications and user fall detection
4. Alerts: Mainly offer smartphones synchronization (for example, SMS, call or e-mail alerts)and reminders
All the functions have to be coordinated by the MCU (micro control unit), which controls the various sensors and processing units. The CPU, sensors, Bluetooth chipset, graphics processor, vibrator, GPS, gyroscope and other functions are all managed by the MCU.
The following image shows the different components of a typical smart watch, in this case, the MOTO360:
Development platform
For smart watches, the development platform is the basic central unit. The development of smart watches requires a dedicated SoC (system on chip). With wearables getting more and more attention, leading chipset manufacturers have all tried to get in on the ground floor.
The table below illustrates key features of some of the currently available platforms.
Sensors
Sensors are at the core of smart watches, and are the primary means by which watches input data. Mei Weixin of Mifree Technology said that smart watches are sensors.Sensors for smart watches differ from those for other mobile electronic products as they offer unique features such as pedometer, heart rate monitoring, humidity test, UV test and temperature test.
Typically, sensors can be divided into three categories:
1. Motion sensors: Examples include acceleration, gyroscope, geomagnetic, and atmospheric pressure sensors
2. Biosensors: These include glucose, blood pressure, ECG, EMG, temperature and brain wave sensors
3. Environmental sensors: For example, temperature and humidity, gas, PH, ultraviolet, ambient light, dust particles, and pressure sensors, as well as microphones
Sensors collect data and transfer them to the CPU or display processor. As technology continues to develop, sensors will become smaller, smarter, more accurate, and their power consumption will decrease.
The table lists 10 leading sensor manufacturers and their main products:
Application processor
Most smart watches use licensed ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) processors, though Intel and others offer competing processors. Compared with CPUs found in laptops or desktop computers, smart watch application processors (APs) have much lower power consumption and take up less space on a board.
MediaTek is the most widely used smart watch chipset brand in China; according to a research report accounting for over 100 products in Shenzhen, over 60 percent of manufacturers use MediaTek chipsets.
Many brand manufacturers also use APs designed by domestic Chinese companies. For instance, Beijing Ingenic recently launched the JZ4775, especially for wearable products and it is already used in Shanda’s Geak Watch, SmartQ’s Z Watch, among others.
Although MediaTek chipsets are widely used in smart watches, they are not designed specifically for smart watches but are actually smartphone chipsets. Smart watches equipped with such chipsets can be viewed as watch-shaped Bluetooth smartphones or watch phones combined with different kinds of sensors.
On the other hand, chipsets designed specifically for wearables, such as the JZ4775, have advantages in power consumption, user interface, compatibility, size and radiation compared with smartphone chipsets.
Wireless chipset
Wireless chipsets are another important part of smart watches. Most data transmission to and from smart watches is done via wireless functions like Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC and GPS. Since the small size of smart watches requires components to fit into a limited space, most Chinese manufacturers prefer chipsets that integrate Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS functions. Broadcom, Qualcomm, CSR and MediaTek are the leading suppliers in this field.
Other than the size of the chipset, power consumption is another significant consideration. Many smart watches have a synchronization function that requires that the chipset is activated at all times; the power management of this unit should be an important consideration.
Now, wireless chipset manufacturers are considering about how to
Screen
The screen is the primary input and output component of smart watches. Smart watch screens can be divided into two parts: the display and the capacitive touch panel.
There are four types of screens used in smart watches: Traditional LCD, Sharp memory LCD, E-ink and OLED. In addition, Qualcomm has introduced a screen with MEMS technology (Mirasol) and Samsung has introduced its “soft screen”. The most commonly used screens for smart watches currently are E-ink and LED screens because of their low power consumption.
The table shows the basic features of different screen types:
Battery
The two main types of batteries used in smart watches are Li-ion and Lithium polymer. Polymer batteries have higher power capacity, making them a better choice for smart watches.
Currently, power consumption is still one of the biggest challenges to wider adoption of smart watches. Even if manufacturers upgrade the battery material or improve its construction, its capacity will not improve significantly. This is because the way a battery functions – converting chemical energy to power – is what limits battery capacity.
Traditional wristwatches may last 1 to 2 years or even do not need power, while smart watches often require daily charging;it is hard for some to accept a watch that may not last a day of heavy use.
New charging technologies are being used in smart watches, such as wireless charging and solar power, but for now battery capacities are a significant limiting factor.
Design
A watch is jewelry and that is how users see it; it is a status symbol as well as a fashion accessory. While smart watches are electronic devices, manufacturers and buyers still have to consider this point. Smart it may be, but smart style is even better.
Motorola and Geak use traditional round-shaped designs to make their products more stylish (the MOTO 360 and Geak Watch II are good examples of this). Such designs are inspired by traditional watch designs and have a broader appeal.
Moreover, the design constraints of smart watches are dictated mainly by their functions, whether the need to pack in sensors or to provide a screen user-friendly enough to be easily used.
Safety needs are another concern. The general manager of Shenzhen Top Watch Communication Technology Co. Ltd, Zhou Qiong said the primary issue of safety-focused wearables is the safety of thematerial itself.
Most of these functions – and most smart watches -are built and marketed by the consumer electronics industry. As a result, consumer electronics manufacturers entered the market first, and only relatively recently have traditional jewelry manufacturers joined in. In China, jewelry suppliers have taken notice of wearable electronics and have begun to enter the market.
Rising Chinese brands
In addition to the large number of OEM manufacturers of smart watches in China, there are also many brands that are trying to make their mark.
inWatch is one of the leading smart watch manufacturers in China. The company considers fashion as an important factor of wearables and applies it in its products. The brand inWatch is sold in overseas markets as well.
Appscomm is a wearables products-focused OEM manufacturer. It has already developed more than 30 wearables and over 80 percent of its products are smart watches.
Top Watch is a smart watch brand name manufacturer. It focuses on fashion smart watches and children’s trackers. The company focuses on overseas markets.
360 is leading antivirus software company in China, which has now joined the smart watch industry. It considers children’s safety products as a niche in the smart watch industry and focuses on the domestic market.
Geak was funded by Shanda – one of the biggest online game operators in China. Its products combine fashion and technology. The company has designed an app store for its smart watches. It focuses mainly on the domestic market.
TOMOON is a brand name smart watch manufacturer in China. It views power consumption and practicability as the primary concerns, and focuses on the domestic market.
Looking ahead
A number of market research firms have published reports about the wearables industry, and most of them predict that it will grow rapidly in coming years.
Many leading consumer electronics companies, notably Samsung, Motorola and Sony, have also designed and released a number of products; Apple’s
Watch alone has driven enormous speculation about how much the market can grow in 2015.
However, even if the wearables industry has a bright future, at the moment it represents a small market compared to smartphones or tablets. Analysts at BI Intelligence tend to believe that the future of the wearable market is full of hype and suspect that projections of many firms are far more optimistic than reality will prove to be.
Consumer awareness and adoption of smart watches are still low. Many manufacturers in China agree. One of the consumer electronics product manufacturers in Huaqiang North (the biggest electronics products hub in Shenzhen), Mao Yun, said, “Manufacturers are confused by data. Even for some big manufacturers, the sales of wearable products are a small part of their business.”
Some manufacturers are concerned that the barriers to entry into the smart watch business are low for existing smartphone manufacturers because many of the core competencies are the same.
Most smart watch manufacturers have taken an early position in the industry and are adopting a wait-and-watch approach.
