Wear a smart watch on your wrist

Hello, Dick Tracy! Each time we hear the name Dick Tracy, we always have the vision of his renowned, multifunction wristwatch. And it is quite amazing that Chester Gould, the genius who churned out Dick Tracy comic strips from 1931 to 1977, had already thought of a wristwatch as a gadget that did much more than just tell the time.

Today, most of the wristwatches in the world -- including the Class AAA fake that you can buy in Shenzhen -- are needed because they let you know how early or late you are. However, watchmakers and the gadget freaks among us still seem to be obsessed by Dick Tracy's watch.

You may have seen watches with an embedded digital camera. Casio (www.casio.com) is one of the most aggressive producers in designing, making and selling electronic gadgets for the wrist.

It makes a lot of sense. We have used wristwatches since very early in our childhood. That is why, even today, while you can easily find clocks everywhere -- on walls, desks, on your computer, your car dashboard, cell phones -- you still feel unable to leave home without a wristwatch.

And if you have ever been to those shopping centers in Shenzhen, you cannot help wondering who is going to wear all those cheap, but hip watches they sell over there. They are everywhere -- far more ubiquitous than in Mangga Dua, Jakarta.

Now, if you want a watch that tells you everything about time, perhaps you should look at Sky Time watches (www.skytimeonline.com). The company is so confident, it calls its watches "the smartest ... in the world." They even tell you sunrise and sunset times in your current location. They show four time zones at once, the phase of the moon and a lot of other features that may help you become a fortune-teller.

In fact, there are so many functions in a Sky Time watch that the display looks as congested as Jl. Sudirman, Jakarta, on a wet Friday afternoon.

Can a PDA be designed as a wristwatch? Fossil (www.fossil.com), Citizen (www.citizenwatch.com), Suunto (www.suunto.com) and Microsoft certainly believe so.

Microsoft has even developed the technology that will beam all sorts of information via FM radio to the gadget, and they call the technology Smart Personal Objects Technology, or SPOT.

The Abacus Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct, which is made by Fossil, is a good example. This watch, which has such a lengthy name, can display news headlines, messages, stock quotes and weather info. All you have to do, of course, is subscribe to MSN.

What about a cell phone wristwatch? Last year, at a dinner during a Nortel event in Hong Kong, an IT journalist from South Korea showed off one of those gadgets. It was not overly big, and it had good sound. It felt a bit strange to talk to your wristwatch, though.

However, a cell phone wristwatch may not be very practical for the time being; it is more likely to serve as an attention- getting accessory at a cocktail or dinner party.

As you may have guessed, the biggest challenge in designing a truly usable cell phone watch is the battery. You need a powerful battery for the cell phone -- a rechargeable battery with enough juice is still too bulky for even an oversized wristwatch.

-- Zatni Arbi