Epson prepping budget GPS sports watch
The name Epson may conjure images of flashy projectors and all-in-one printer scanners, but the company look set to be expanding into a fairly unexpected avenue: sports watches.
To be precise, Epson are looking to take on the Nike+ SportWatch GPS and the Motorola MotoACTV with a GPS timepiece all of their own.
The company have announced that they are looking to launch their “first entry in to [the] electronic sporting goods market”, describing a product that will “help people enjoy healthier, fuller lives by using its technologies and skills in sensing, low power, and device downsizing to provide wrist-wearable devices and web-based services.”
Though it may seem a strange direction for the company to take, when you note that Epson are a division of Seiko, known for their watch manufacturing, it all starts to make a bit more sense.
Details are slim so far, with Epson only offering up the “conceptual image” above and the fact that the eventual product will weigh just 50g and give you 12 hours of battery life per charge. It will also be waterproof to 50m.
Compared to the futuristic looking Nike and Motorola gear, the Epson concept looks fairly basic. However, its waterproof features are unique at the moment, which will make it great for swimmers looking to track their training, particularly over long distances. Also, seeming to lack any sort of touchscreen wizardry, we’d imagine the entry-price will be fairly low, which will likely appeal to those who want a robust training tool that won’t need insurance should they take a tumble and happen to land on their wrist.
Colour us intrigued. We’ll keep you posted with what Epson offer up as the finished article once we see it.
