Enter: the E-Ink watch! Why digital watches are about to become a thing of the past!

Enter: the E-Ink watch! Why digital watches are about to become a thing of the past!

You may or may not have heard the increasing buzz lately about E-Ink, or EPD watches. Maybe you are wondering what an E-Ink watch is, or what all the fuss is about.

Well, to answer the first question, of what an E-Ink or EPD watch is, we have to first explain what E-Ink is. Actually, you may be able to guess. E-Ink, or to use the generic term, EPD (Electronic Paper Display) is a relatively new, and constantly improving new technology that allows digital displays to be made which look just like paper!

E-Ink, or Electronic Ink, is the trademark of the E-Ink Corporation and their proprietary Electronic Paper Display technology has in the last few years improved enough that it is viable for consumer use and mass production. The result has been a rapid increase in E-Ink-based technologies, first and foremost ebook readers such as Amazon's Kindle.

But what is all the fuss about? Well, the advantages of EPD, or E-Ink, are obvious - people don't want to read from a flickering, hard-on-the-eyes LCD or TFT display, and that is why ebooks never took off before. Now though, users have a device available which effectively displays text on a surface that looks just like paper and is much closer to a 'real' book. And E-Ink is taking off in leaps and bounds.

Of course, this brings us to E-Ink watches. The first EPD watch, called the Future Now, was actually demonstrated by Seiko 'way back' in 2005. Though the technology was still in its infancy then, the E-Ink watch was indeed like a piece of the future - imagine, a watch with a crystal-clear, rock-solid display that looks just like paper! Apart from anything else, it looks ridiculously cool!

An EPD watch also uses a tiny amount of power compared to a conventional LCD or TFT display, and of course places less strain on the eyes.

The market was not really ready for the EPD watch in 2005, and in the meantime another brand, Phosphor, also using E-Ink technology, came to dominate with practically the only line of E-Ink Watches on the market.

However, in 2010, Seiko declared war. They had not been sitting on their laurels since 2005 - the Future Now EPD Watch was about to make a grand re-entrance.

Their NEW line of E-Ink-based watches has a vastly improved E-Ink technology behind it - 80,000 pixels in four shades of gray, which provides scope for detailed graphics, not just a textual display (though this is vastly improved too), and takes the whole concept further. The new Seiko range looks absolutely stunning, with beautifully designed display graphics showing not just time, but a variety of other data too. And the best part of it is, it looks just as if it is printed on paper, and not an electronic display at all!

At time of writing, this fight-back from Seiko was just beginning, but I am so sure that EPD watch technology is going to be BIG that I am going to make a prediction right here and now:

Unless you are a total analogue watch purist, your next watch will be an E-Ink watch!

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