The 2010s — The Decade of the Smartwatch

Over the course of the last ten years, smartwatches have really taken off. They are no longer quite perceived as the futuristic tech gadget that relatively few people had but rather something that you are likely to spot adorning quite a few wrists as you go about your daily business. Whist these clever wrist-sized computers may not be able to do quite as much as the indispensable smartwatch they can certainly do a lot. Everything from paying for your lunchtime beverage to tracking your heart rate can be achieved by the deceptively small computer that can go anywhere and everywhere with you.

What’s changed?

The changes that have taken place in the field of the smartwatch have however not just taken place overnight, they have been 10 long years in the implementation. At the start of the decade the smartwatch that we have come to know and love was something of a pipe dream. Its humble beginning saw the birth of a simple fitness tracker, which didn’t take long to become the must have new fitness item. Momentum and innovations in the field were quick to follow and it really didn’t take long for those first changes to appear.

The first forays into fitness tracking

The end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 saw the release of some of the first fitness trackers to hit the market with the Jawbone UP, Fitbit Ultra and Nike Fuelband some of the more popular makes and models that were available. Whilst the Nike and Jawbone models were wrist-based trackers the Fitbit Ultra took the form of a more traditional style pedometer and was worn clipped to the waistband.

Nothing like the smartwatches and trackers that are available today; these earlier models did little more than basis tracking of steps, sleep — although not with great accuracy — and activity. GPS watches were of course around but an entirely separate thing with makes like Garmin and Polar marketing products that were predominately aimed at serious triathletes and outdoor runners. The thing that set fitness bands apart from the other options that were available was that, by using a companion app and a website, they could be connected to a smartphone. Digitising your metrics was suddenly a much easier concept and suddenly achievable and measurable fitness goals were within the reach of the average person who wanted to improve their fitness, lose weight or both.

The rise of the fitness band

By 2013 fitness bands were becoming really popular and were everywhere, they were also starting to look a little like something out of a science fiction novel. 2012 saw the release of the first Kickstarter for Pebble and they raised a staggering amount, in fact more than any other campaign at that time. Pebble watches were a purchase by early 2013 and the same year Fitbit released the Flex and Force, their first wrist-based tracking devices.

Moving forward to 2014, and that is when the smartwatch concept begin to pick up the pace. These wearable devices might have been the big hit of the CES 2013 but on the whole, they were still very much a product in the design stage. It was, however, the year that things really started to change. Fitbit introduced the Charge, which became one of their bestselling product lines, ever. In the same year Google also launched their wearable operating system and towards the end of 2014 these models were quickly joined by the first batch of Android-powered smartwatches including the Samsung Gear Live, LG G Watch, Moto 360 from Motorola and the ZenWatch from Asus.

From Android to Apple, everyone wanted in

It didn’t really matter that most of these models were to put it mildly a little “buggy”, and some of them had the appearance of prototypes rather than fully finished products, the smartwatch was making its mark. Momentum was starting and by 2015 the optical heart rate sensor has become a more common feature on fitness bands, issues with the apps were sorted out and the first casualties of the smartwatch war had fallen. The Fuelband was one of the first to go. This was followed by the launch of a second round of Android Wear watches. The Surge, Fitbits first smartwatch hit the marketplace, and they also launched the Charge HR with its heart rate monitoring capabilities. The long-awaited announcement from Apple finally came at the end of 2015 and the Apple Watch was launched.

The rise of the smartwatch wasn’t without its critics, with more than a few people wondering if this new trend was really likely to take off. And to some extent it isn’t difficult to see where they were coming from. Fitness bands were limited but okay, whilst the idea of the smartwatch offered something a little more, but the general opinion was that on the whole they were something that nobody actually needed and at a price that many wouldn’t pay.

A shakeup of the smartwatch scene

It is fair to say that at this point in the history of the smartwatch things did get something of a shakeup. 2016 saw some significant casualties and Pebble were bought by Fitbit just a few years after they had made their dramatic entrance onto the scene, however the wearables market was certainly not on the way out; far from it. Some of the other companies who had previously thrown their hats into the ring decided that smartwatches were not the way forward for them, including companies like Samsung. Following the release of their Gear Live smartwatch they changed their directions opting instead for the Tizen operating system which appeared in their later Galaxy and Gear watches.

A lull in progress

The smartwatch as a concept was not dead but it did take a bit of a beating and between 2016 and 2018 there was significantly less progress that there had been previously. Worthy innovations that did occur during that time include the debut of the Ionic smartwatch from Fitbit that had been built on the remnants of the Pebble technology. This was not a fantastic watch by any stretch of the imagination, but it had a truly inspiring battery life and was one of the first smartwatches to utilise sp02 sensors that may just, perhaps, one day in the future be able to keep track of sleep apnoea. Whilst Fitbit were launching their Ionic, Apple Watch Series 3 came along with standalone connectivity, of course so did a number of other brands like LG and Samsung with the LG Watch Sport ad Gear S3 respectively.

The new generation

Fast forward to 2018, and many of the smartwatches available on the market offered some form of built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring (that was relatively accurate), multi-day battery life, sleep tracking and whole host of other rather handy features users had never really known they needed. These watches represented a vast improvement from the laggy, good on paper but not so in reality watches that we had previously seen.

Life changing, and life-saving technology

The other good news around this time it that prices dropped. The Apple watch was of course still very expensive but many of the other watches out there offered similar, if not the same features, for a much more wallet friendly price. Clever marketing and an increasing awareness in health meant that more and more people were willing to spend out on a smartwatch that would help them get healthier.

Apple launched their Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018, and the FDA clearance for the innovative EC feature, together with the added fall detection mode meant that this was not just a luxury smartwatch with a price to match but a smartwatch that may just be able to save your life.

Now, almost a decade after the smartwatch revolution began, Apple is not the only company with ECG capability. Other makers are adding it to their models, as well as a whole host of other health tracking possibilities. You can now get everything from reproductive health tracking to the possibility of diagnosing sleep apnoea. Apple have also added hearing health monitoring. The smartwatch is becoming more than just a fitness tracker it is increasingly looking towards the health market and the line between consumer tech and medical device is more than a little blurred.

What’s next?

As we move into a new decade the fitness tracker as we know it is being firmly left behind, technological advances and capabilities mean that this is indeed the age of the smartwatch. Apple, Fitbit, Google, Gamin and Samsung are the names to watch in the next few years as they all lean towards the health route. There are huge benefits to be had from taking smartwatches in this direction, but some people are questioning whether there should be stricter legislation in place. There should at the very least be more collaboration with the medical community if smartwatches want to move in the direction of medical monitoring.