Silicon Valley's Matrix Industries launched the world's first purely thermoelectric-powered smart watch, the Powerwatch ("Energy Watch"), on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. The company advertises that it is a watch that never needs to be recharged. The watch uses the latest thermoelectric technology and is powered by the wearer's body temperature: the heat generated by the human wrist heat is sufficient to keep it running, thus eliminating the need for an external power cord to charge. What is thermoelectric technology? The thermoelectric device generates a voltage using the temperature difference between its front and back. Its principle is that when the electrons on the warmer side are heated to the cooler side, a potential difference (voltage) is generated and a current is generated on the wires connecting them. Due to the weak current, thermoelectric technology can usually only supply power to devices with low energy requirements, such as wearable devices and human implant devices. For a watch, the bottom of the watch fits the wrist and is warmed by the wearer's body temperature. In contrast, the dial exposed to the air becomes relatively cool. Therefore, the temperature difference between the front and the back makes the watch an ideal device for powering by the hot spot principle. So why are watches with thermoelectric technology rare in life? Smart watch: the ideal thermoelectric carrier? In fact, as early as 1998, Seiko (SEIKO) released Seiko Thermic, a quartz watch powered by body temperature based on thermoelectric principle. But probably because of the high price (the price of second-hand ebay is still more than 3,000 euros today), Seiko Thermic has not achieved commercial success. More importantly, for quartz watches, ordinary button batteries can provide one to three years of battery life, "no need to change batteries" is not an attractive selling point. But smart watches are different. Since the release of the Apple Watch, it has been widely criticized for less than 24 hours of standby time. Although there are smart watches with endurance for more than a month, the mainstream products on the market are generally within a week, most of which are only two days. Life has become the biggest pain point in the smart watch market. Frequent charging and forgetting to charge are the culprit that affects the user experience. IEEE spectrum editor Tekla S. Perry explains why he no longer uses Fitbit watches: "I actually like to track the number of steps, but I don't wear my Fitbit anymore. Because there are too many times in the past few months, I forgot to charge it. As a result, my average number of steps is completely messed up. After that, I don't. Then have the motivation to count." Matrix Industries, which released Powerwatch, claims they can solve this problem. Founders Akram Boukai and Douglas Tham are the company's CEO and CTO, respectively, and they are optimistic that thermoelectric technology has matured enough to support wearables. Moreover, the timing of using thermoelectric technology on implanted devices and IoT low-power sensors will soon come. Powerwatch: Just trying to be a potential stock? Powerwatch with body temperature power supply, thermoelectric technology will be the future of smart watches? The Powerwatch is fully powered by body temperature, and its AMBI Q processor is the main reason, in addition to its advanced thermoelectric modules. Matrix Industries claims it is the world's lowest power processor and requires far less power than competing products. Without AMBI Q, Powerwatch cannot be independent of external power supplies. When a user wears a Powerwatch, the amount of power generated by the body temperature is stored in the battery, and the excess power is stored in the 200 mAh battery inside the Powerwatch. When the user takes off the watch, it automatically enters sleep mode, the display is turned off, but the stored power is guaranteed to be as usual. Low-power processors are bound to face performance compromises Compared to competitors such as Apple Watch and Fitbit, Powerwatch as a first-generation product is very simple and can even be called shabby: step counting, calorie calculation and sleep tracking, except for the functions of ordinary watches ( Display time, stopwatch, alarm). This is likely to be the result of processor performance limitations, but it may also be that after the thermoelectric module is installed, there is not enough space in the watch to hold other sensors. Powerwatch is not without functional advantages (except for no charging). According to Engadget editor Cherlynn Low, Powerwatch's unique thermoelectric design allows it to measure calories burned more accurately. In addition, Matrix Industries said it will add more features to its follow-up products. While Matrix Industries is very excited about the “never recharge†of Powerwatch, the tech circles don’t seem to be optimistic about the future of Powerwatch: Cherlynn Low thinks it has too little functionality compared to competitors. Tekla Perry called it a fitness tracker and commented that the watch was a bit cumbersome, saying it might only appeal to geeks who want to show off to friends that "My watch doesn't need to be recharged." Even Matrix Industries itself says that selling Powerwatch is not their main goal, but rather convincing other smart hardware companies to adopt their thermoelectric technology. Anne Ruminski, Engineering Director of Matrix, said: "We see ourselves as an energy company that extracts heat, not a watch company. We want to see thermoelectric technology used by other wearables, medical products and smart sensors." Ruminski is optimistic about the future of thermoelectric technology, which she believes is particularly suitable for subcutaneous implants such as pacemakers. These devices do not require much energy and the skin surface provides enough thermal energy. Powerwatch's crowdfunding price in Indiegogo on November 14th was $99.99, and it has risen to $119 as of the 15th and will rise to $160 at the time of the public offering.
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