It looks like a painted sheet of paper until you peer closer

Nov 28, 2014 14:12 GMT  ·  By

For a few months now, most wrist watches we wrote about were a smartwatch or something that only barely fell short of qualifying as such, with few exceptions. Mostly because we don't usually write about normal watches.

Still, wearable technology did earn its own niche in a relatively short time, so we have to revisit the issue of the normal timepiece.

Although considering the product we're about to examine, we may as well not be using the word “normal” at all, even if the watch does only show the time.

It is not some ability to double as a smartphone, or to complement one, that drew us to the FES Watch. This kind of features are absent, along with everything else that makes a smartwatch smart. What stood out was the minimalist design.

The FES Watch

The FES Watch was developed by Fashion Entertainments (FES for short), a startup company which is actually a subdivision of Sony.

Sony created the company so that it may design and experiment with products that could lead to a new evolutionary branch for wearable technology.

And since it was already launching and selling smartwatches under its own name, FES went in a different direction, you could say.

That's why the FES Watch is so very thin, thin enough for you to worry you might tear it to pieces by accident, just by tugging on it.

It's not quite so fragile, thankfully, but the design is indeed very simplistic, with very low-maintenance e-paper displaying the time.

On that note, the internal electronics are as far from sophisticated as anything could get. All in all, due to the minimal electronic needs and nature of e-paper screens, the watch can last for up to 60 days on the energy of a single button battery.

The only drawback we can think of is that, unlike smartwatches, the newcomer doesn't have any integrated backlight or front light / edge light, so you won't easily see it in the dark. But it's not like conventional watches have something like that to begin with, unless they're particularly fancy. Also, the most expensive wrist watches are usually mechanical ones, which lack lights regardless.

Availability and pricing

Neither has been disclosed, mostly because even Sony hasn't really decided on the final design for the FES Watch. Currently, it is just a prototype, though we suppose it's better than the bow ties, hat/shoe accessories, and paper holders that are only ideas right now.

Sony FES Watch (6 Images)

FES Watch, black
FES Watch, perspective viewFES Watch, black with white strap
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