That was a time when we were needed to tune our mechanical watches for their operation. Have you seen your grandfather’s wristwatch or one of the old watches of your father? It was a simple watch that had three needles, first for the hour, second for a minute, and the third one for the second’s value.

That was a mechanical wristwatch. After up-gradation in technology, these watches were updated towards electronics. Most of us in our childhood used to wear electronics watches that had small LCD to show the hour and minute value.

It was our childhood but now we are using a smartphone which provides many types of features. Now a human brain thought that let’s migrate these smartphone features into a wristwatch and another wearable gadget made. That’s a point that makes this smartwatch.

Smartwatches are full-fledged digital tools that do more – a lot more. It can run several apps, make a voice call, video call, provide internet service, connects with other gadgets like Bluetooth sunglasses, Digital Pen, and much more. You can say that it is a ‘James Bond’ watch. How does it achieve these features, which parts built it, and how does it work?

Want to know about it, let’s explore it.In the present innovation era, smartwatches have a sim card slot that made them independent. They don’t need any smartphone for any internet connectivity.

Smart watches have mainly following hardware units:

1. Sensors
2. Wireless chipset
3. Screen
4. Li-ion batteries
5. Microprocessor
6. Body designing

Sensors:

Sensors are an electronic component which detects physical or chemical variations. It is the core element of any smartwatch. Several sensors are being used in modern smartwatches. Most of them are given below:

• Motion sensors: It detects various displacements in the device.
  1. Accelerometer: The Accelerometer detects changes in the device displacement, orientation and tilts around three axes.
  2. Gyroscope: On the other hand Gyroscope measures how fast the device rotates along the x, y, and z-axis or three axes.
  3. Magnetometer: The Magnetometer measures the strength of the magnetic field around the smartwatch.
• Biosensors: It is a component made of transducers and biological elements. Most of them are not in use with smartwatches but multiple types of research are still going on to integrate biosensors into the smartwatch.
  1. Electrochemical biosensor: The Electrochemical biosensor detects biological materials such as enzymes, cells, etc.
  2. Magnetic biosensor: When biological material was magnetically introduced with ‘Magnetic biosensor’ then the magnetic property of this biosensor such as inductance, magneto-optical properties changed. These changes have been detected by Magnetic biosensors.
  3. Thermometric biosensor: A Thermometric biosensor can detect temperature variation.
  4. Acoustic biosensor: An Acoustic biosensor is also referred to as a piezoelectric biosensor; these sensors measure the change in the physical properties of acoustic waves. Heart bit monitoring features in smartwatches are being achieved by using this kind of biosensor.
  5. Optical biosensor: These are a most common type of bios sensor, it detects light intensity and adjust the brightness of your smartphone and also on your smartwatch.

Li-ion batteries:

We know that power is everything in electronic stuff. Without power, your smartwatch is not able to perform any action. In most of the smartwatches, Li-ion batteries are being used because it provides long life and rechargeable feature.

There are many smartwatches those support induction charging whereas some of them need a USB cable to charge their battery.As of result wireless chipset of smartwatch is protected from electromagnetic interference by using magnetic shielding.

But in upcoming days this wireless or induction charging will take place in every portable device.

Wireless chipset:

It is also an important part of the smartwatch. In the majority of the smartwatch’s, data transmission is being done by GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC.

Every smartwatch consumer needs a fancy, stylish and small-sized smartwatch. That’s why many manufacturers are preferred to use a chipset that has high packing density or we can say that manufacturers preferred small wireless chipsets.

Screen:

Most of the smartwatch screens are capacitive type. The screen of the smartwatch is a major input and output element of the whole setup. The screen has capacitive touch whereas its display has different types – OLED, E-ink, and Traditional LCD. At present time OLED and E-ink displays are widely being used because they consume less power and provide a clear display.

Body designing:

 At present time smartwatches are more than a digital device. It can be a fashion accessory or a status symbol for most of the persons.

A smartwatch can perform many tasks based on its installed applications. It has its operating system.We can say that a smartwatch is a mini smartphone on your wrist.

Microprocessor:

 Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) microprocessor is the backbone of many smartwatches. These processors are specifically designed to consume less power as compared to desktop processors.

Thanks for reading. See you soon with another exploration!