Watchers: after the smartphone

Someone must know how watches came to be called watches. I don't. I don't even know how clocks got their name. But I do think the word 'watch' would make more sense if it applied to what we call glasses or spectacles - we could call them watchers.

I have previously written in praise of Nothing's budget CMF smart watch and ear buds, and if I needed a new smartphone it would be a Nothing CMF. But will I need a new smartphone or will I be able to make do with the watch and glasses I normally wear?

Smart watches have touch screens, Bluetooth and WiFi. Some can even take phone calls and come close to smartphones in what they can do. Meta/RayBan glasses have cameras, microphones, speakers and Bluetooth, and can understand speech. Meta, Google, Apple, Samsung and others are getting close to offering smart glasses with all this and, crucially, displays.

We interact with our phones by gestures - swiping and tapping the touchscreen and by pecking at virtual keyboard or, increasingly, by verbal commands and queries.... and we walk into lamposts while staring at screens.

Freed of the need for a large screen, cameras, microphone and speakers, a smart watch could have all the processing power of a smartphone. The smart glasses with their microphone, speakers and in-lens display complement the smart watch, together doing everything your smartphone does.

Imagine heading to an unfamiliar destination guided by the familiar 'take the next right turn' in your ears and a right turn arrow superimposed in your view, while listening to music or a podcast. A notification pops into view - a new message - then you see a sign in German and ask for a translation - written in your display and spoken in your ears - before dictating a quick reply to the message then taking a couple of snaps of a famous bridge and checking the photos superimposed on the view itself while listening to a brief history of said bridge.

Returning on a tram you have chance to catch up on emails, news and your socials. Rotating and pressing the watch crown selects an app and rotating the bezel and tapping the screen lets you select items in the glasses display. These actions along with swiping gestures on the watch's touchscreen and taps and swipes on the arms of the glasses take the place of tapping, swiping and pressing a smartphone's screen and volume buttons, while speaking quietly into the microphones in the glasses is easier than tap, tap, tapping at a smartphone's virtual keyboard.

My own CMF watch would need nothing more than a rotating bezel and a bit more processing power to be capable of all this. Nothing's experience with smartphones, ear buds, smart watch and user interfaces - all best in class - makes them perfect for this ground-breaking new concept, but by developing open standards for the interface between the gestures and processing capabilities of the smart watch and the inputs and outputs of the smart glasses, the market would be open for other manufacturers and for combining watches and glasses from different suppliers. So many manufacturers are making smartphones, smart watches and Bluetooth earbuds, and most are developing smart glasses, while Google are introducing Android XR, ready for augmented/extended reality glasses and headsets.

User interface options for smart glasses are very limited - maybe speech input and one or two buttons - so most rely on a close connection to a smartphone. If you need to hold, look at and tap your phone there is little advantage in having the glasses. But you don't need to carry or hold your watch - it's right there on your wrist - and turning the bezel or tapping the screen are natural and easy and don't require looking down at your wrist.

Much of the time your watch will just be a watch, telling the time and counting your steps, while your glasses will just be for looking, perhaps correcting deteriorating eyesight or darkening in sunlight. But when you need more - the extras a smartphone can provide - all that functionality is right there in your watchers.