Sony have started crowdfunding a watch collaboration with the Citizen Watch Company on Japan’s First Flight platform. The new watch is called the WENA Wrist and is essentially a smartwatch, but with an interesting twist.
WENA stands for Wear Electronics Naturally and the watch is designed to match the name. It looks and works just like a standard stainless steel watch, but boasts a lot of interesting features. Let’s have a look at Sony’s interesting watch collaboration with Citizen!
Wear Electronics Naturally
In order to build a smartwatch which doesn’t look like a smartwatch, Sony worked closely with the Citizen Watch Company. The resulting design is an incredibly beautiful watch which looks just like a standard luxury watch. There’s no doubt that the watch really does embrace the tagline “Wear Electronics Naturally”.
Inside the watch is where the magic of Sony’s interesting watch happens. The WENA boasts NFC capability and shows notifications by vibrating and through an LED light. It also includes sensors for health and fitness related activities.
The WENA comes in two models, a three hand model – which looks like a standard luxury watch and the chronograph model – which looks like a standard chronograph. The three hand model runs for three years before needing charge and the chronograph lasts for 5 years.
Watch Crowdfunding
Sony are hoping to raise $83,000 during this crowdfunding campaign, which is less than other smartwatch manufacturers have attempted to raise in the past.
Pebble is one of the most recognised smartwatch manufacturers to embrace crowdfunding. They attempted to raise $100,000 in 2013 and finally ended up raising $10,266,844 to bring the project to life. They also crowdfunded a follow up “Pebble Time” in February this year. The original target for the Pebble Time was $500,000 – which was reached in 17 minutes. The Pebble Time finally reached $20,338,986 – making it the most funded project in Kickstarter history.
The Rufus Cuff is another smartwatch which was crowdfunded on IndieGoGo last year. The watch has a large 3.2 inch screen (almost the same size as the first iPhone) and is pretty much a phone on your wrist! As the watch features full water resistance and the full Android operating system, it’s no surprise that people flocked to fund it. Their campaign reached $446,171 in May 2014 and the device is due to be released in the near future.
Sony are also no strangers to crowdfunding for watches. They have launched more than one crowdfunding campaign for the FES Watch, an E-Paper watch. This watch uses E-Paper for the strap as well as the watch face itself, which makes it incredibly unique. The original crowdfunding campaign didn’t mention any links with Sony, in order to test whether people would take to the idea without the brand backing. Since the original crowdfunding campaign, Sony have run a number of other crowdfunding campaigns with a lot of success.
Sony’s interesting watch is certainly something to get excited about. You can check out the Sony WENA watch on YouTube at this link. By partnering with the Citizen Watch Company, Sony are joining the ranks of technology companies partnering with quality watch manufacturers. Fossil, Tag Hauer and Casio are already on board, who will be next?
