A new smart watch from Toyota Motors and Citizen Watch lets drivers open and lock car doors remotely, pop the trunk and start the engine with a flick of the wrist. Together the two firms have crafted a non-contact key wristwatch for use with luxury Toyota Crown automobiles. The watch transmits a radio signal for various functions to the car’s built in antenna.
To open the doors drivers just grasp the door handle for the watch to transmit the unlock signal; press a button on the side of the watch for remote locking and unlocking. Although the timepiece is tuned for just one make of car, if this perk proves popular Toyota is considering expanding it to other models. Priced at 42,000 yen, the watch went on sale October 4th.
This effort by Citizen is just part of a wider initiative by Japanese fine watch makers and electronics manufacturers to establish a telecommunications standard for wireless watches including watches that can display mobile email. Admittedly technology for technology?fs sake is not always a practical thing but don?ft tell that to Casio, Olympus, Seiko Epson and Citizen and around 100 other high tech companies.
These fine-tuning powerhouses along with telecom carriers have teamed up with the Mobile Promotion Consortium to develop standards for this new medium. None of these companies want a tiny version of the DVD format war currently raging with Toshiba, Blue Ray and etc. The consortium plans on the technology being compatible with the mobile web no matter what make of watch, timepiece or other hardware they produce.
– Gail Nakada
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