In a live Hangouts session, Motorola revealed more details about its exciting Moto 360 smartwatch, one of the first devices that will be powered by Google’s recently released Android Wear OS for wearable gadgets. Designer Jim Wicks explained some of Moto 360’s features, without going into too much detail about them. The most exciting feature mentioned so far may be the device’s battery, which will feature a special mysterious charging method.
The Moto 360 will not have a microUSB port for charging the battery, and Motorola would not say how it plans to charge the device. There may be other ways to charge a wearable device aside from connecting it to a power source with a cable. Some previous iWatch rumors suggested Apple’s smartwatch could be charged with help of solar cells placed in the display, offer wireless charging support, or pack a technology that would be able to turn arm movement into battery juice. While these are just speculations for the iWatch’s battery, such technologies sound plausible enough for any wearable device, including the Moto 360.
Further speaking about battery life, Wicks said that the Moto ACTV actually taught Motorola a few things about power management. “Our system design for ACTV is what allowed us to run it with a very small battery, and what we invented there went into the Moto X (with Active Display, touchless control and sensor integration). And a lot of the stuff you saw in the Moto X…ended up going into this watch,” the Motorola exec said.
Wicks also revealed that Motorola chose a circular design for the Moto 360 because that’s the most popular watch design, with 80% of all watches sold globally using a circular watchface. Moreover, the Moto 360 is supposed to appeal to men and women alike, and thanks to its design it’s supposed to work similarly whether it’s worn on the right or left arm.
The Moto 360 will have interchangeable straps, it’ll be water-resistant and won’t pack a camera. The device will connect to any Android device that runs Android 4.3 or later – likely because it will pair with them over Bluetooth LE technology – and will heavily rely on the voice-based features supported by Android Wear.
Wicks did not reveal pricing or actual release dates for the smartwatch, but did say that Motorola wants to launch the smartwatch globally at some point after the U.S. gets it. A recent report suggested that because of its complex design, the Moto X be available in limited quantities.
The full Moto 360 video introduction follows below.
