Finally, a smartwatch you never need to charge

Ah, smartwatches. Nice idea, but who’s got the discipline to charge something every day?

Plenty of people, it turns out. But your point is sound in that, on the whole, smartwatches have something of a power problem – their batteries simply aren’t big enough to keep them going for very long, meaning you’ll have to reach for the charger more often than you’d like. That’s not the case with the PowerWatch.

The PowerWhat?

The PowerWatch. It’s a smartwatch made by a startup called Matrix Industries, and it’s powered by your body heat, and your body heat only.

STEAMY WINDOWS! How does that work, then?

Even when you’re doing nothing more strenuous than vegetating in front of an episode of Pointless, your skin is outputting 100W of energy as heat. Start exercising and that number increases tenfold. Matrix has developed thermoelectric tech that’s able to capture some of this heat and convert it into power – meaning as long as you’ve got this thing strapped to your wrist, it’s powered. There’s even a meter on the display that shows how much electricity you’re creating at any one time.

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What happens when I take it off?

It flips to a low-power sleep mode, saving all your data.

Ah yes, data – so what is it that this smartwatch actually does, smartwatch-wise?

It doesn’t do an awful lot, seeing as power-saving is crucial, but it’ll measure the calories you burn (which it does using its thermoelectric tech for extra accuracy), the steps you take and indulge in some light sleep tracking. There’ll be a companion app for iOS and Android so you can check all this lovely data out.

Oh, and because there are no charging ports, the watch is fully waterproof to 50m.

Water good idea! Where can I get one?

It’s not scheduled to hit mass production until September 2017, but you can order an early sample via Indiegogo, if you back Matrix’s campaign by at least US$99 (£80).