The long running saga of the Swatch smartwatch has taken another turn, with the company's outspoken CEO Nick Hayek telling a Swiss newspaper that a "revolutionary battery" will arrive in 2016.
Bizarrely, the new battery tech isn't just for smartwatches, but cars as well. We're guessing he means different sized ones.
"Whoever brings a battery for a smartwatch to the market that you don't need to charge for six months has a competitive advantage," Hayek told Handelszeitung.
"We're working intensively on this problem with our research group Belenos and battery producer Renata. Next year we will come to the market with a revolutionary battery, not only for watches but also for automobiles."
Essential reading: Top smartwatches for 2015
Last month we told you how Hayek had hinted that the first true Swatch smartwatch (the volleyball-focused Touch Zero One doesn't really count) would arrive in May.
Reports claimed there will be two models; the first to arrive being a watch with NFC capabilities to handle payments and open hotel doors. A watch with Bluetooth for displaying alerts and news from a smartphone is purportedly due later in the summer.
"We are not going to transform and put the mobile phone on the wrist," Hayek said. "Let the others do it. Samsung did it, Sony did it. Everybody does it."
The Swatch smartwatches are said to be both Android and Windows Phone compatible.
Source: Reuters
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By Paul Lamkin
Wareable Media Group co-CEO Paul launched Wareable with James Stables in 2014, after working for a variety of the UK's biggest and best consumer tech publications including Pocket-lint, Forbes, Electric Pig, Tech Digest, What Laptop, T3 and has been a judge for the TechRadar Awards.
Prior to founding Wareable, and subsequently The Ambient, he was the senior editor of MSN Tech and has written for a range of publications.