Watches
With its watch projects, ASULAB aims to open up new technologies for the Swatch Group and develop these sufficiently so that they can live up to the traditional requirements placed on a wristwatch. This is intended to create opportunities for the incorporation of new technologies in wristwatches without abandoning the traditional core values of the watch as an aesthetic piece of jewellery that establishes an emotional relationship with the wearer.
The products described below show that it is possible to remain faithful to the horologist's tradition while pushing back its limits.
Iris
"Iris" is a watch with an integrated digital camera. The watch with classical design has in addition to the hands a digital display and contains – despite of its small size – a complete digital camera with an infrared link to a PC for further treatment of the images with any of the standard software packages. The camera takes colour pictures and has memory for 31 images and a pixel count allowing for good quality pictures in post card format.
The user interface features the invisible touch sensitive pads in the watch crystal developed for the Tissot "T – Touch". In Iris the touch pads are software configured and the user is assisted by the display indicating the touch pad functions and finds an intuitive menu through the watch and camera functions.
The watch allows taking over 500 pictures from one primary battery and thus allows operation for over a year for frequent users of the camera function. To achieve this autonomy special low power components have been developed: the watch contains a bistable display, which maintains the displayed information without power for any time, a specially designed image sensor combining low power consumption with distortion free images of fast moving objects and an image processor having an electronic architecture based on mathematical algorithms which allow a fast and energy efficient treatment of the image data.
Iris
Iris satisfies the usual watch quality requirements including water resistance, which allows, thanks to a special optical design of the lens system to take pictures under water as well.
The results of this project will allow developing innovative products for the watch.
Agenda
"Agenda" is a wristwatch in classical aesthetics and metal case containing the functionality of a personal digital assistant (PDA). The watch is equipped with a touch sensitive watch glass as the main input interface and with an analogue and digital display. This concept allows to read and edit data on the wrist watch such as the agenda, address book and notebook information (e.g. the "to do list") known from the usual and much larger PDA’s.
The user may select between five languages and consult and edit the data using the touch screen, which has a similar functionality than the one on the Tissot "T – Touch". The watch offers the main editing features known from PC text editing programs. The dynamic memory management allows to store data according to the users need with a capacity similar to other PDA’s; the watch holds for instance simultaneously over 1000 appointments and 160 personal files in the address book and 100 "to do lists".
Despite of the watch allowing an entirely autonomous use, it is equipped with a radio data link to a PC. This allows to read and edit the data on a PC and to download them to the watch without the need to take the watch from the wrist. The radio link works in both directions and the software protocol in the watch and on the PC allow to use the watch with several PC’s as well as to use a PC for several watches and to build local networks around a (partially) common agenda. The PC software has the functionality and the graphism of a virtual paper agenda and is correspondingly easy to use.
A special low power processor and transceiver has been developed for this watch which allow the use of regular watch batteries and give the product an autonomy of one and a half year with frequent use of the agenda functions.
Agenda
With its overall dimensions and aesthetics corresponding to a sports watch and satisfying the normal watch requirements such as being shock proof and water resistant, the product demonstrates that it is possible to integrate functions typically found on computers and PDA’s in a wristwatch without compromising on the aesthetics and ergonomics of a classical analogue watch.
Vibrato
Vibrato, a watch that can be read and gives alarm in absolute discretion! If you are in situations where the normal way of reading a watch is difficult or impossible, Vibrato will still allow you to read the time, even without looking at your watch. Vibrato doubles the conventional way of reading the time or perceiving an alarm by replacing the traditional "beep" by a vibrating, silent alarm.
To read the time, Vibrato features a touch-screen, consisting of twelve transparent sensors on the inner surface of the sapphire watch crystal. To activate the time-reading mode, the user pushes in the crown and brushes over the watch crystal with his finger. The watch detects this movement, and as soon as the finger touches the crystal over the hour-hand position, an uninterrupted vibration results. At the position of the minute hand, a series of short vibrations with a very simple coding is emitted that indicates the minutes.
In the same way it is possible to read the alarm and to set the time or the alarm, with an accuracy range of one minute.
When the alarm comes into action, the watch gently starts vibrating, with an easily perceptible, non-audible, vibration.
Vibrato
The vibrating system is an original design based on a planar resonating device. It allows far smaller vibrating units, having a power consumption compatible with a watch battery and the ability of giving a strong vibrating signal.
All the usual watchmaking standards have been observed; the timepiece is a quality watch, conforming to the criteria of the Swiss watch industry. It is water-resistant to 30 m (100 ft) and shock-resistant to 5000 g's (g = acceleration due to gravity).
Swatch-Talk GSM
Another development is the Swatch-Talk GSM watch that contains a telephone built to the GSM standard. Swatch-Talk GSM incorporates a dual-band GSM mobile telephone (900 MHz and 1800 MHz) in a wristwatch, while retaining the specific characteristics of watchmaking products such as size, precision, water-resistance or resilience. This product also invests the mobile phone with the advantages of a wristwatch: ready availability and hands-free operation.
The user interface gives priority to simplicity through an intuitive approach to the most common functions of the watch and the mobile phone. The original capacitive control system, first developed for Tissot's T-Touch watch, was here adapted to enable dialling facilitated by the numerals on the watch's dial.
The importance assigned to acoustic design allowed an efficient solution to be developed despite the small volume and the constraints related to water-resistance. As the microphone and speaker are incorporated in the watch, no external accessory is necessary to place or receive a call. Users can have a good-quality telephone conversation while keeping their phone-watch on their wrist at a distance of 30 cm from their face. Easy volume adjustment also enables discrete use when required by the situation.
The SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, which is an indispensable accessory of the GSM standard, is placed in the bottom of the watch in a small compartment - likewise sealed - that the user can open without difficulty using a coin.The aerial is also of original design: integrated into a moving part of the bracelet, it can be raised to improve communication in difficult reception conditions.
Swatch-Talk GSM
Powered by a lithium-ion storage battery, this phone-watch can easily be recharged by means of its inductive charger, which also serves as its holder when the watch is not being worn.
With its small size and light weight (73 g, battery and bracelet included), this product is currently one of the smallest mobile phones in the world and definitely the only telephone integrated into a wristwatch which retains, through the technical approach adopted, the character and the performance and ruggedness expected of a watch product.
HPM
The HPM (High Precision Mechanics) calibre is an automatic watch movement comprising a quartz tuning fork resonator and an electromechanical escapement. The HPM movement requires neither a battery nor a rechargeable battery, since it obtains its energy from the spring that is wound automatically by the wearer's movements. It is in fact an automatic calibre in which the mechanical escapement has been replaced by an electrical generator producing an alternating current. The electrical output is used to supply a tuning fork quartz resonator, which provides the watch's time base. The frequency of the generator is compared with that of the quartz resonator and the generator is slowed down electrically in order to make it - and hence the hands - operate synchronously with the quartz resonator.
The operation of the HPM movement is perfectly even and silent because there are no mechanisms of any kind in the watch to cause any jerky movements. The seconds hand moves continuously and silently. With this system the HPM movement achieves the accuracy of conventional electronic quartz watches without the need for batteries of any kind.
Photo composition with partially disassembled HPM movement
Alpinist
The Alpinist watch has an analogue display and includes a thermometer, an altimeter, a barometer, a compass and chronometer functions. Nevertheless, the Alpinist is still a very elegant watch because the analogue display is also used to display the values measured by the sensors. The hands symbolise a compass needle if the wearer wishes the watch to indicate North. The weather trend is indicated by the position of the hands in relation to the sun or the cloud symbolising good or bad weather.
Despite its many functions, the user interface of the Alpinist is extremely simple and allows easy, intuitive operation. For this purpose the watch glass is fitted with invisible capacitive sensors and functions as a "touch screen". Inscriptions on the dial indicate the points where the various functions can be selected with the touch of a finger.
One of the first Alpinist watches
SwatchTalk
SwatchTalk is a watch with a built-in cellular phone. It meets the requirements placed on a telephone (keys, microphone, speaker) as well as those for a watch (water tightness, shock resistance, etc.). There is no need to remove the watch from the wrist to make or receive a call. A capacitive keypad is used to dial the telephone numbers, and the speaker is loud enough to hold a telephone conversation effectively at a distance of 30 cm from the watch. The rechargeable battery is sufficient for a day's operation and can be recharged at night using an inductive charger. SwatchTalk also shows that it is possible to develop advanced technical products which remain easy to operate for the user.
Swatchtalk telephone watch
GPS watch
The GPS watch (GPS = Global Positioning System) is a quartz watch featuring an analogue display and a GPS receiver with extremely low power consumption. In addition to all the conventional functions of a technical watch (time, date, chronometer, alarm, etc.), the GPS watch can show the position and speed of the wearer. The excellent legibility of the hands on the analogue display is used to show speed, direction of travel, etc. In order to ensure good legibility, the numerical information is shown on an LCD display.
The GPS receiver for this watch was specially developed to minimise power consumption and bulk. The watch incorporates the energy source, RF circuit, GPS demodulators, antenna and display within a space slightly smaller than that of a Swatch.beat. This GPS watch can be produced with a case made of metal or insulating material.
