The Martian smartwatch is full of new features and lasts for days

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/14/the-martian-smartwatch-is-full.html

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Well, certainly getting a hell of a lot closer to something I’d buy/use…

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Does that include the cost to ship it from Mars?

Seriously, though, this is almost everything I would want in a hybrid smartwatch:

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  • Turn-by-turn navigation without having to have my phone out?
  • A way to find my phone using my watch or vice versa, if either goes missing?
  • Useful controls?
  • A separate watch battery so the “watch” doesn’t dies, even if the “smart” does?

Throw in a fitness tracker and give it a comfortable metal band, and I’ll be sold.
(Oh, and make the music remote control work on Android, because “iOS only?” Seriously?)
(ETA: And Qi charging. It would feel silly to plug in a watch.)

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Since the day on Mars is around 40 minutes longer, does that mean each hour on the watch is around 99 seconds longer, or does it stop for a 40-minute interim at midnight, as they did it in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy?

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You have it backwards.

It’s a Martian watch that’s been reset to work on Earth, not the other way around.

It both has the longer hours, and a 40-minute jump forward at midnight (as opposed to stopping for 40 minutes).

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Yeah, this is pretty good. Real analog hands are so important to me for some reason.

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IPX4=splashproof. It really is going for a retro aesthetic.

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The watch should give you the turn by turn notifications. They’ll show up on the display.

If you don’t need voice commands, check out the Martian notifier watches. They’re currently retailing in Amazon around $35…

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I think you misunderstand.

This has the four bulleted points, which I’m happy about.

There are a few more things that I want (a better band and a fitness tracker, mainly), but this is very close to the watch that I would want.

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Got it. Well, like I said, if you don’t need the voice commands, the Martian notifier has all the other features for $35…

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Is this a good time to pitch my idea of slightly shortening the second, so that there are exactly 100,000 seconds in a day? (Because who the hell picked 86,400? That makes no sense!)

We could have 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, and 10 hours in a day. Boom.

Edit: We would also change “one Mississippi, two Mississippi. . .”, when counting aloud, to "one Kentucky, two Kentucky. . . "

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I guess you’ll want to give the months silly new names as well?

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Of course.

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Silly new…? Well, hpmh! I say “Good Oseille” to you, citizen.

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As opposed to what, the silly old names? I mean, come on, December is the 12th month, not the 10th. The names of the months make sense in Polish, at least in the northern hemisphere, but not in most other languages.

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Joyeux Frimaire, citoyen!

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You’re right that it would take a literal revolution to make this happen. So I’m not really hoping for it. (I’m joking, basically; I apologize for ruining it somewhat by saying so.)

I’m motivated partly by the observation that people put meaningful time units, like the day or the year, on the same footing as meaningless arbitrary ones, like the second or the week. And also by the insight, from the excellent book The Measure of All Things, that no nation switched to the metric system except after a revolution. The closest thing to an exception is the United Kingdom, which switched after the loss of its empire. It makes sense, when you think about it, but it’s also surprising.

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I hope the money goes towards Martian potato famine relief!

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What has bugged me about the last few years wave of ‘smartwatches’ is this: I had one of these in 2007:

Sony Ericsson MBW-150, designed by Fossil. Had a third party Windows Mobile 6.5 app by guys from the wonderfully named SmartMadSoft site, and did the following:

  • caller ID for incoming calls with vibrate - and a one click button to hang up. Haven’t had a ringtone since then
  • controlled the music playback on my phone without taking it out of my pocket
  • showed first line or two of incoming SMS/email

Nearly 10 years ago. Cost me about £170, then a year or so later the OLED display faded and died, and I bought a ‘replica’ from China for £35.

Now, I love my Microsoft Band, but it’s good to see a watch that’s a watch plus some smarts again. There does seem to have been a race to jam way too much functionality into a lot of these devices.

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