Tag Archives: Wearable Design

This sleek technical watch design defies traditional watch-making with an elliptic shape and transparent case!

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We’ve seen all-ceramic square watches, synchronized dancing clocks, and even watches with cyberpunk dreamworlds encased within glass domes. There are probably as many unique watch designs out there as there are designers for them. Watches typically represent fashionable microcosmic introductions to the people wearing them. That’s why vintage Casios can bring us right back to their heyday in the 70s or why wearing a watch similar to Tony Soprano’s 18K yellow gold Rolex can make us feel like mob bosses from New Jersey. Norm Edward’s elliptic-shaped technical watch brings us elsewhere, sometime in the distant future – maybe to the Hollywood set of the 52nd James Bond installment or a space community on Mars.

Heritier, a community of watch enthusiasts who create limited edition timepieces, aims to carry horology heritage and values into the 21st century by bridging global communities, partnerships, and charity initiatives with a joined love for watches. Edwards’ technical watch render began as a study in Heritier’s founder, Julien Bonzom’s passion for horology and watchmaking. Encased within a thin, double-paned glass dome, the clock’s inner workings are only slightly revealed. While some cogwheels and gears are within view, a multi-level, concentric design pulsates from the clock’s center and extends to the dial’s inner edge, where numerical minute markers indicate the time of day. Matte stainless steel accents both cradle and cleverly obstruct the glass dome, matching the round cluster of sprockets and gears at the timepiece’s overhanging extension, which keeps the watch in time.

Resembling the look of a joystick, or even a narrow egg-shape, Norm Edwards’ technical watch design could be envisioned wrapped around the wrist of some futuristic spy agent or a successful, metropolitan businessperson pelting between skyscrapers in a hovercraft. Whoever’s wearing it, the watch’s abstract shape and sleek, somewhat hidden inner-mechanism give off an air of composed complexity, a combination that has always mystified the world of timekeeping and watch-making alike, and always will.

Designer: Norm Edwards

This wearable cast revolutionizes healthcare by protecting and healing injuries without sacrificing mobility!

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Healthcare is a space that designers are now focusing more on after the pandemic. From portable ICU pods to 3D printed masks and medical devices that monitor health at home, the design community is focusing on creating products that can help the healthcare workers as well as the patients so the burden on the overall system is reduced. While we can’t control accidents, we can be better prepared for them, and SCALED is a project from RCA aimed at doing exactly that – protecting and healing you to improve the quality of life to keep pace with longevity. This could be the next generation of casts that merge protection, healing, and mobility into one superhero-like wearable!

Research shows that human joint injuries are often recurrent and likely to cause long-term immobility. Designer Natalie Kerres then looked at nature for inspiration to come up with a solution and zeroed down on animals that physically protected from threats by skin, shells, or scales. She wanted to design a product that mimicked the natural protection and healing while allowing flexibility – that is how SCALED was born. “The geometry of animal scales has changed through the process of evolution according to environmental parameters which are critical for survival. A scale structure is capable of impact force distribution and, moreover, is flexible in one direction and limiting/interlocking in another,” she explains.

The goal of her design is to investigate the potential of a controlled motion-limiting structure in preventing hyperextension joint injuries. Usually, with injuries, you may have a cast, a brace, or a crepe bandage you use but that restricts movement and also makes the body in that region stiff as you wait to heal. “Mobility is commonly a trade-off with protection and SCALED, therefore, presents a nature-inspired solution for a flexible protective wearable.” It uses a parametric design that allows the structure to meet a wearer’s exact needs and the restriction in motion can be regulated through set parameters.

The design’s name fits the product appropriately – the scales in the wearable are a product of biomimicry. The geometry is inspired by lizards, fish, and pangolins. SCALED gives us an opening into producing mass-customized wearables with interlocking protective scales for controlled motion limitation. “The developed algorithm designs a data-driven, customized, and responsive scale structure according to the user’s specifications. SCALED can be used for injury prevention, rehabilitation, and sports performance enhancement through regulated motion control,” elaborates Kerres. SCALED received funding and is joining the MedTech SuperConnector to be further developed for series production.

Designer: Natalie Kerres

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Wearable Tech designs that help you live a healthy lifestyle

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Wearable design – the term brings to mind bionic body enhancements or maybe a vibranium necklace that transforms into a suit? (Admit it, Black Panther’s tech rivals that of Iron Man and this is coming from a hardcore Iron Man fan). But the reality is, we don’t truly realize how many wearables are already a part of our lives! From the smartwatch to the Bluetooth headset that is almost synonyms with a corporate bigshot, wearables have already integrated themselves into our life. So why not embrace the innovation and let them make our lives easier? The wearable designs showcased may not make you Iron Man but will surely make you feel you have your own Jarvis!

Calling it the ATMOBLUE, Leandro and his team developed an entirely new category of wearables that could actively purify the air of 99.9% of particles, pioneering a technology that made them sort of the Tesla of face-masks, as opposed to the N95 which only filtered 95% of the air. The mask featured “positive air pressure” which helped keep out germs and contaminants by making the air pressure inside the mask greater than the air pressure outside. Built-in fans pushed purified air right into the insides of the mask, allowing you to breathe normally, and one-way outlets got rid of the humid air, so your mouth never felt wet and sweaty.

Students at the University of Chicago developed a unique, wrist-worn bracelet that can remotely scramble all sorts of microphones in a working radius of a few feet. Just wear “The Bracelet of Silence” and switch it on when you want a private conversation, and its multiple ultrasonic sensors disable nearby microphones, preventing them from being able to hear anything you say. The wearable comes with an array of 24 ultrasonic transducers that jam microphones in ALL directions. When worn on your hand, the jammer uses your hand’s movements to increase its range and eliminate audio blind-spots, effectively jamming all sorts of microphones (even ones hidden from view).

Literally the size of a quarter, the Dab by Adam Miklosi is an unobtrusive Holter ECG/EKG that rests comfortably on your chest, constantly reading your heart’s movements. Designed to be minimal, non-invasive, and simple, the Dab tries to bridge the gap between medical appliances and wearables. Its tiny yet classy design sits on your chest via a gel patch, while the electrodes capture your heart activity. The Dab’s dry-electrodes allow it to be used and reused, unlike disposable electrodes that lead to large amounts of medical waste. They constantly measure one’s heart activity (requiring periodic charging via their wireless charging hub), and keep logs of accurate readings, quietly sitting on your chest while you absolutely forget that they’re even there in the first place!

Piece of Time by Ben Koros is a wearable device, which can be worn as a pendant necklace, bracelet, or basic clip, will sync with your calendar wirelessly. Its discrete lights give you a visual countdown to the next important event. A simple glance down or look in the mirror will remind you and help you stay aware of upcoming tasks and other occasions.

The OrCam MyEye 2 feels a lot like what Google Glass should have evolved to become. I’m talking about ditching the holographic crystal and focusing on the camera technology, combined with Google Lens’ identification algorithm. Designed to be a small, retrofittable wearable camera that attaches to any pair of spectacles, the MyEye 2 can identify objects in front of it and read any text within its frame. The MyEye 2 is more assistive tech than consumer tech. It helps people with low visibility to ‘see’ things by actively translating text and identifying objects. Just point at anyone or anything and the MyEye 2 picks up your gesture, analyzing what (or who) you’re pointing at. If you’ve got a text in front of you, the MyEye 2 begins reading it out, allowing you to easily read fine print like newspapers, menu cards, and ingredients lists without worrying about straining your eyes. The tech works for humans too, allowing you to point at familiar people and have the wearable identify them for you.

The Circular Smart Ring by Amaury Kosman connects to your phone via Bluetooth, giving you all your data in a neatly collated dashboard. During the day, the ring captures your activity, blood oxygen levels, energy levels, calorie burn count, among other metrics, while at night, the ring ambiently tracks your circadian rhythm and records your sleep quality, heart-rate variability, sleep disturbances, REM cycles, and sleep and wake times. Using pretty state-of-the-art data processing and machine-learning technology, the ring, its app, and the app’s assistant Kira help you collectively better understand your health and give you bespoke advice on how to improve it.

Rather than put on an uncomfortable set of specs that nobody wants to wear, FITT360, designed by Junse Kim of LINKFLOW is a neckband wearable that rests comfortably on the shoulders to provide not only forward-facing photography but a panoramic view of the world around the wearer! The first of its kind, it captures the entire 360° so you can truly relive the moment you’re in. Equipped with Bluetooth and SNS, you can live stream your experiences or save up to 90 minutes of recording time and export it in 360 or 2k photo/video later.

Braille opened the door to literacy and enhanced independence for those with visual impairments. Similarly, the FingerReader by Suranga Nanayakkara aims to do much the same thing without the limitations of raised-dot reading. Adapted to fit on the hand and index finger, this wearable device makes it possible for users to point at any sign, label, banknote, or page in a book and instantly understand what’s in front of them. Equipped with a specialized scanner, words and sentences are detected and processed using computer vision algorithms so they can be spoken in real-time. Used in tandem with traditional Braille training, it has the ability to take an individual’s independence to the next level.

Meet the VOIXATCH by designer Young Kwon Oh. If that name mildly confuses you, you’re not the only one. VOIXATCH is basically a pretty sensible amalgamation of the three products that we got duped into paying truckloads of money for. It’s a smartwatch that does practically everything your phone does… and guess what. It has a Bluetooth headset docked right into it that you can detach and use to make calls and possibly even listen to music. VOIXATCH is basically what happens when good technology meets good intentions. Grabbing eyes as the first smartwatch with a built-in Bluetooth headset, the VOIXATCH helped unveil a world where watch and earphones were part of a tight ecosystem as one single product that did practically everything your phone could, without you needing to take your phone out.

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The Lex by Astride Bionix sits on your person (strapped around your waist and thighs), weighing just over a kilogram thanks to its aluminum construction. However, designed to bear extreme loads of weight, the Lex can take over 120 kilograms of weight without breaking a sweat. The aluminum legs can be deployed using a simple push, and then just lean back while the Lex falls into position, giving you instant seating anywhere you go. When not in use, the legs slide up into their designated zones, allowing for full freedom of movement while even letting you carry a backpack.