Sony has unveiled the Fes Watch earlier today, running on an e-paper display. The experimental device offers an alternative to LCD displays on most smartwatches.

Fashion Entertainments - a spinoff Sony company - will be in charge of the development of the watch. Sony has tried to keep the announcement low-key, starting with a crowdfunding effort in Japan, which raised $30,000.

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In the follow up announcement, Sony said they used the spinoff company to gauge real interest in this type of product. Crowdfunding isn't as big in Japan as it is in China and the U.S., but Sony normally ships to its home country first.

Fes Watch will be able to tell the time and offer minimal "smart" functionality. Not much has been released about the watch, but Sony will look into fitness and health sensors, which can be read on a smartphone app.

The watch design is minimalist, quite the opposite of traditional watches. Sony will add several watch-faces for the Fes Watch, to make it more customizable.

E-paper is not the most popular display choice, but has been used for the Kindle Paperwhite, Pebble Watch and Yota smartphone. Benefits of e-paper include much more battery life and easier-to-read text.

Sony claims to offer 60 days battery life on the Fes Watch, a lot more than most Android Wear smartwatches that cannot last one day.

The wearables market is expected to be a billion dollar market by 2016. Several analysts claim the Apple Watch will begin the trend - Apple has already ordered 30 million units for 2015.

However, right now manufacturers do not seem to be making money from wearables. Samsung sold 800,000 Galaxy Gear units, but other companies have had less success. Motorola and LG have not announced sales figures for their own wearables.

Sony now offers two variants of smartwatch, one with a custom OS and the other with Android Wear. The new e-paper smartwatch will most likely offer yet another OS.

Sony has not announced release date or price plans for the Fes Watch.

Tagssony, smartwatch, e-paper, crowdfunding, Fes Watch, wearables