Credits: Article and images by Martin Green @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/03/11/watches-powered-by-body-heat-did-the-bulova-thermatron-foretell-a-matrix-powerwatch-heat-driven-future-2/
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How long does the charge last? I actually don’t know, mainly because the watch hasn’t left my wrist much. The reason for that is that the watch geek in me finds the way this watch gets its power, and the way it is visualized on the screen, utterly fascinating.
The entire watch is dedicated to the way it generates its energy, and since the people at Matrix know that this is not an easy feat to accomplish they are very frugal in how this energy is spent.
The watch has a standby mode that activates automatically when the watch is inactive, and not moving, for 45 minutes. When it detects motion, it automatically activates itself again.
It can sync with your phone, but you need to synchronize it manually so it doesn’t constantly drain the battery. Also, the other functions are pretty basic: there is a stepcounter, a stopwatch, and running mode.
It also has a calorie counter; where most smartwatches use activity-based data to give an estimate of the calories burned, the PowerWatch uses the way it generates its power to its advantage: by combining thermoelectric and temperature data it can provide a far more accurate estimate of the calorie count.
The way of the future?
The PowerWatch is not going to make anything difficult for the current generation of smartwatches, and quite honestly I doubt if that ever was the intention of Matrix Industries.
What Matrix has achieved is putting together a very convincing showcase of the technology and how well it works in real life.
While Bulova killed the Thermatron by putting it on the market, Matrix has done the exact opposite. Imagine this technology in a watch like the Breitling Emergency or the Tissot T-Touch.
In fact, it could even be a lifeline to the conventional quartz watches I recently proclaimed close to death in Quartz: Past, Present, But No Future as it might give them an edge many consumers will appreciate enough to continue purchasing them.
I am actually very happy that after all these years I have the technology once introduced by the Bulova Thermatron in fully working order on my wrist. I even went to the trouble of fitting it with a custom-made alligator strap by Manufacture Jean-Rousseau, a strap that cost twice the price of the watch itself.
Crazy? Of course. Although I prefer the term profoundly happy.
For more information, please visit www.powerwatch.com.
Quick Facts Matrix PowerWatch
Case: 46 mm, metal bezel, plastic case and aluminum case back
Movement: thermoelectric generator
Functions: hours, minutes; day, date, month; calorie counter; step counter; running mode; stopwatch
Price: $199
Quick Facts Bulova Thermatron
Case: 36 x 32 mm, stainless steel with or without PVD coating
Movement: quartz with a thermoelectric generator
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds
Price: $2,000 (1982)
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Credits: Article and images by Martin Green @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/03/11/watches-powered-by-body-heat-did-the-bulova-thermatron-foretell-a-matrix-powerwatch-heat-driven-future-2/