We were wandering through WalMart the other day when something caught my eye. There, on an ever-present rotating spindle, were the watches.
Oh look, there's a Timex, a variation of the Triathlon model that has been around since I got my first real watch in Grade 7. It was important for me, back then, because I needed to keep track of time not just for everyday things like getting to school on time, but to take my insulin.
I have had at least four Timex Triathlons over the years. One was a dressed up model, with an optical sensor. You could hold it up to a computer screen (CRT only - as an LED monitor required a special computer plug in) and it would download up to 10 alarms for your various appointments. Pretty smart, one thought, until I realized that it was so cumbersome of an interface, I used it only once or twice.
The current Timex watches were the same price as the last time I looked at them, probably 10 years ago, at $44 a watch. That hadn't varied in a very, very long time. Perhaps 20 years? I don't remember seeing a Timex Triathlon for any other price.
They looked rather quaint, these timepieces. It was like looking at a herd of dinosaurs, grazing on the plain, not knowing the asteroid spelling their doom has already been sighted.
One does not go to Walmart to buy the highest quality watch. Beside the $44 Timex watches were other watches for $20. Many of these models will be wiped off the map by the new Apple Watch, which starts at US $349.
The first smartwatch I have seen "in the wild" was a Samsung Galaxy Gear this past summer. I was chatting with one of my contacts when I noticed this enormous thing attached to his wrist. He was quite twitterpated with this new toy.
"Do you use it to make calls?" I asked
"Oh yes," he replied.
I had a hard time imagining that, with thoughts of Dick Tracy and Inspector Gadget going through my mind.
The Apple Watch is going to become ubiquitous. I doubt it will be as common as iPhones, which tend to be the only phone I ever see out in the public, but it will make a huge impact. When was the last time you saw someone carrying a "dumb phone?"
I personally was watching out for its new features because of one rumor that proved to be unsubstantiated. Many people thought health monitoring would be a key feature of this new smartwatch. While it will monitor heartbeat and motion, there's one thing that did not materialize - the ability to monitor a person's blood sugar level.
That rumor had me really excited. I poke my finger several times a day to bleed on a $1 test strip to determine where my blood sugar is at. This is enormously important in managing my diabetes. Some people thought Apple had come up with a sensor that could do it through the back of a watch.
If so, such a feature would be revolutionary. It would nearly wipe out conventional blood glucose testing strips. Even if it wasn't as accurate - I would be happy with "high, low, OK" - giving an indication without blood would be as significant as a Star Trek tricorder. Instead of a few times a day, you could test every hour, 24 hours/day. Maybe every 15 minutes? Tied with an insulin pump and an appropriate app, you could closely approximate the functioning of an artificial pancreas.
It's widely known a huge number of people are undiagnosed with Type II diabetes. Imagine if, simply by putting on an Apple Watch, we could painlessly screen enormous swaths of the population? Think of how that could change the world of medicine.
Alas, the Apple Watch is more of a Fitbit than a glucose meter. But perhaps we will see such a feature on the Watch 2? Not only would Apple shake up the watch industry, like they did the music and phone industry, but it would rock the medical testing business to its core.
If so, that would have me lining up for days in front of an Apple store, because it would truly change my life.
-- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
