I wanted a smartwatch that showed me notifications from an iPhone, was small enough to wear, and had a rechargeable battery that lasted for at least a day. I created my own Apple watch based on an Arduino. It is a smartwatch based on an Arduino mini pro, which is connected to the iPhone over Bluetooth. The USB-micro port is connected to the battery which makes the charging easy and simple. The wires on the front are touch buttons which sense if you put your finger on them, which allows you to interface with the watch.
The watch will automatically synchronize the time with the time on the iPhone when a new notification is received. This makes the watch more reliable and less sensitive for delays in the Arduino. After 10 seconds, the screen will be turned off in purpose of saving battery. The screen wakes up if the middle button is touched or if a new notification is received.
I came across Luke Brendt’s page (http://lukeberndt.com/2014/ios-notifications-with-arduino/) and saw that he had created the same thing that I wanted to achieve, but I needed the device to be smaller and wearable. It is Brendt’s ANCS Arduino Library that I am using in this project. ANCS stands for Apple Notification Center Service which is described as following from Apple. “The purpose of the Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS) is to give Bluetooth accessories (that connect to iOS devices through a Bluetooth low-energy link) a simple and convenient way to access many kinds of notifications that are generated on iOS devices.”
