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Android’s Tomorrow Never Dies indeed! Readers, prepare for another article about my favourite thing to talk about: wristwatches. But not any wristwatch, as this one that will be featured in this article is not Open Source but Open Architecture!

This as a venture capital company named WIMM has decided to breathe life into the idea of an intelligent wristwatch, but using a customized version of Google Android. I am surprised that someone even has decided to take a stab at this concept again, as others, inclusive of Microsoft and their SPOT smart Wristwatches or smartwatches, tried and failed.

The idea gained traction with me when I noticed the trend of people taking the Apple Nano and making it into a oversized wristwatch, which needs Bluetooth to make it a hit as noted in my article  Prediction: The iPod Nano Watch – Time has a New Standard.

Officially Apple states it was not their intention that it be a watch, so this fantasy lives on, when the Apple iPod Nano is compared to other wristwatches which push the technology envelope as per my article Apple iPod Nano vs Phosphor Reveal – Bling Bling, Playa.

The wristwatch Gods have heard apparently my prayers in my above article and decided that WIMM, whose funding is from FoxxCon, should make an Open Architecture Platform for wristwatches. I say “Open Architecture” as, like Open Source Google Android, the FoxxCon fabricated watch components can be ordered by different watchmakers and fashion designers en masse and tailored to their design as well as to fit the aesthetic qualities of their wristbands.

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Not to hard, as FoxxCon is going to be run completely and efficiently by robots in the next three (3) years!

Good to note here that FoxxCon, the Taiwanese component assembler of choice for many Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony and Apple, is now funding a Venture capital start-up. Rare too, is this oddball idea of Open Architecture, both phenomenon being strange for an Equipment Supplier.

The WiMaX (IEEE 802.16d, e) Platform, which Telecom Provider Digicel uses to power it Broadband 4G Mobile service installed and built by ZTE Corp of China and also made by Huawei, is the ONLY Platform that I know of personally as being Open Architecture in the Electronics and Telecoms world.

The specs for this Open Architecture marvel are very impressive for a Venture Capital funded start-up. A 1.4” monochrome Capacitive Touch LCD display with the usual motley crue of GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) and Bluetooth. It runs a customized version of Google Android fitted to the screen and sports a SD Card Slot that supports 32GB SD Cards.

Consequently, with all that gear, it comes as no surprise that the Platform can only manage a measly thirty (30) hours of full usage between recharges.

The watch was designed for WIMM by a FoxxCon team of one hundred (100) Engineers and may retail for US$199 to US$299. If you are a watchmaker or interested Developer willing to tinker with Electronics and Open Source at the same time, a SDK (Software Developers Kit) will set you back US$200 inclusive of a sample wristwatch using the Foxxcon designed WIMM Module

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Once assembled, these WIMM-based smartwatches can be accessed and configured via a personalized Website access or via your smartphone synchronization; a surefire sign of a hit in the making, being as Google Android smartphones are now so popular.

Imaginably, the apps that Developers can write for this Open Architecture Platform may range from RSS Readers, Calendars, Heart Monitors, Stock Tracker, Email Reader, all optimized for the smaller screen. Or as WIMM Spokesperson Tim Twerdahl puts it, quote: “It’s an open platform for personalized microexperiences”.

While not yet a failure, its Youtube video and appearance from the pictures above make me wonder if I may be again witness to the Lazarus Effect of Google Android as was the case with the T-Mobile Sidekick.

Google Android plans of world Domination as per my article Apple’s Revolution: Android @ Home and IceCream Sandwich in 2015AD are on-course, it seems….and I can sleep soundly tonight, as my dream of a big obnoxious Dick Tracey style smartwatch is coming to pass.

My main rants: The wearer’s thirty (30) hours of usage from this bulky Open Architecture smartwatch Platform that looks like something Q made for James Bond. That said, for those Google Android fans, it should not disappoint, as most likely the manufacturers may modify the Architecture so that the smartwatch may be inductively charged and may even be trickle charged with embedded solar panels or even via motion or ambient sound

Clear evidence that for Android, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)!

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