Archos smartwatch with E Ink touchscreen coming this summer

Archos is adding a fourth smartwatch to its lineup. The company introduced 3 smartwatches in January, including a $129 watch with a low-power E Ink display.

Now the company plans to launch another E Ink model, this time with a touchscreen display.

The first 3 Archos smartwatches are expected to hit the streets in May or June, with the new E Ink touchscreen model coming later in the summer. Pricing for this model hasn’t been determined yet, but it’ll probably be the most expensive member of the Archos smartwatch family.

All of the company’s watches are designed to pair with your smartphone via Bluetooth and display incoming notifications on your wrist. What sets the E Ink models apart from the cheaper LCD versions is that E Ink relies on ambient light so it’s easy to view in direct sunlight and it only uses power when the screen is refreshing.

This lets the E Ink watches display the time or other content continuously for days or weeks without recharging. Most smartwatches with color screens dim the display after a set period of time in order to conserve battery power.

The new E Ink model appears to be the Archos version of a watch designed by Sonostar, and introduced last year as a device that could potentially sell for about $179.

Charbax from ARM Devices got an early look at the upcoming Archos smartwatch, and while it doesn’t seem to respond very well to touch commands at this point, Archos is just starting to show off a prototype. It’ll be months before the watch hits the streets. Hopefully that’ll provide some time to work out the kinks.

via ArcTablet