Introduction

The E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band from Art Technology is a product with very good quality materials and interesting technology which is also integrated in some tablets and mobile phones.



At first I would like to thank Art Technology for making this review possible by offering me their E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band for testing and reviewing!



About Art Technology:

“These exciting E Ink watches are the first of an entire line of next generation watches under the new PHOSPHOR watch brand. Art Technology is a Hong Kong based company that partners world class watch production with sharp design utilizing emerging technologies.”

Product description:

Its ergonomic curved case with ultra-thin profile fit so comfortably on your wrist you may forget you are wearing it, but others won't.

The digital display utilizes the revolutionary E Ink electronic paper display featuring its paper-like, high contrast readability that is sure to be noticed by others around you. A standard numeric digital display in one mode, a graphic hour clock display in another, and ability to switch between white-on-black to black-on-white time display give this digital watch a style all its own.

Specifications:

Case width: 38.0mm
Edge thickness: 8.0mm
Overall case thickness: 12.5mm
Water resistance: 5 ATM - 50m
Display: 12 hour only

About E Ink Technology:

E Ink is a proprietary type of electronic paper, which was manufactured by E Ink Corp, founded in 1997 based on the research started at the MIT Media Lab. The technology was mostly used in devices like e-Readers but it can be also found to a lesser extent in mobile phones and watches.

Here are only a few examples where this technology can be found:

Tablets:
-Sony Reader
-iLiad
-Cybook Gen3
-Amazon Kindle
-Barnes & Noble nook

Mobile phones:
-Motorola Motophone (F3)
-Samsung Alias 2 (for the keys)

Watches:
-Phosphor Watches

In the October 2008 limited edition North American issue of Esquire magazine, we can see for the first time E Ink integrated, featuring flashing text; the cover was manufactured in Shanghai and was shipped refrigerated to the US for binding and was powered by a nominal 90-day integrated battery supply.

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Although revolutionary in concept, electronic ink is a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot.



To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid "carrier medium" allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us



One of the disadvantages of this technology is that it has a very low refresh rate compared with the other low power display technologies on the market (ex. LCD). Because of this, it is nearly impossible to implement on screens like these sophisticated interactive applications like fast moving menus, mouse pointers or scrolling.

Another disadvantage may be that sometimes an imprint of an image may be visible after refreshing some parts of the screen. The created effect is also known as “ghosting”. This issue is solved, however, after the screen is refreshed several times.

Turning each pixel white, then black and then again white helps normalize the contrast of the pixels; this is why many devices with this E Ink technology flash the entire screen white and black when loading a new image, to make sure ghosting won’t happen.

Electronic ink can be applied to both flexible and rigid materials; when using flexible displays, the base requires a thin, flexible material, tough enough to withstand considerable wear, like extremely thin plastic. The process of electronic paper manufacturing promises to be less complicated and less costly than LCD.

The main advantages of electronic paper include low power usage (power will be used only information is changed on the screen), flexibility and readability which is better than most other displays. E Ink can be printed on any surface; here we could include walls, billboards, product labels or T-Shirts.
In the near future we could see electronic versions of the daily paper using E Ink technology.

(contains extras from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Packaging:

The watch comes in a nice black box, with the Phosphor embossed and metallic logo on top:



When we first open up the box, we can find the watch display in center, covered with a transparent plastic protective film on top and the rest of the box contains protective material to avoid damages during transport:



Inside the box we can also find a little user manual:



Right from the first page of the manual, we can find that the watch uses a CR2025 3.0V Coin battery, the case is made from Stainless Steel, the case thickness is 12mm, its width is 33mm, the frontal lens are made from Mineral Glass and the watch is water resistant ( 5 ATM which means 50 meters ). In the manual we are also explain how to set it and how to operate the watch:



The version I have received for review is with the leather band and has lots of holes to be confortable for any person:



On the lower right side of the display, we can see a very stylish Phosphor logo inscription:



On the right side of the watch we can find the “SET” key, which helps switching the screen from positive to negative mode or if we keep it pressed we can enable/disable the keytone:



The opposite side holds an identical button, with other functions like setting the date/time/alarm:



Here is a close-up of the band; on the top we can see the black leather and the fixing holes, and on the laterals we have a very nice orange colored rubberized surface:

On the back of the watch, we can see again the phosphor logo, a cap which can be opened as indicated; here we also get the information that the body of the watch is made from stainless steel and that it is water resistant till 50 meters:



The back of one of the bands holds an inscription which says “genuine leather”:



The other band holds a Phosphor logo inscription:



The display is very easy to read thanks to the E Ink technology and its readability is not affected at all by the sun when going outside:



With a press of a button, we can switch from positive mode to negative mode, which means white digits and black background:



In the next screen that we can select, we can see the calendar; here we can see displayed the month on top and the day on the bottom:



The alarm can be set in the next screen; here we can see a bell icon, the hour on top and the minutes on the bottom; the alarm will ring for about 20 seconds if not interrupted and then it will turn off by itself; if we want to stop it even faster, we can press any of the two buttons:



In the last screen, we can see the Analog Time mode, with the hour displayed on top and the large minute counter on the bottom:

Conclusive Thoughts

Right after opening the box, we can see that the manufacturer used only high quality materials for the product. We can choose 3 types of bands, depending on what we like most before buying: leather, polyurethane and stainless steel, which is the most resistant. Leather and polyurethane bands are also available as replacements, for $15 each.

The battery power consumption is very little, because power is needed only when information is changed on screen. (for example when the minute changes, but also when the watch does automatic periodic refreshes on the screen, to prevent “ghosting” effect). Its alarm is also time-limited, to conserve battery life.

Another thing that I really liked about this watch is that its readability is not affected at all by the sun when going outside.

The watch has, though, two downsides; one is the price (the main website lists the tested sample as being $185!) and the second is the lack of a backlight, now you’re unable to see the display during the night.



I would like to thank again to Art Technology for offering me this interesting product for review!