Samsung Details the Making of the Charm Fitness Tracker

Earlier this month, Samsung unveiled the Charm fitness tracker, which is their newest wearable device. It’s one of the few fitness trackers out there that doesn’t actually have a display at all. Instead it uses LED lights to tell the user where they are in terms of their daily goals (steps, calories burned, etc). Samsung wanted to make the Charm a bit more of a fashionable bracelet, instead of a smartwatch. Which is what most fitness trackers look like these days. Samsung has now posted an interview with Samsung’s Assistant Manager of Product Planning, Areum Ko and Senior Designer Myungkyu Kim, who tell the story of creating Charm.

Ko mentions that the Charm is a stylish fitness tracker that is targeted at women. Stating that this demographic accounts for almost half of all activity tracker users. Ko and his team worked hard to design Charm to be a fitness tracker that people can feel free to wear and use in their daily lives. And something that was a bit less of an electronic device. Stating that “Charm was designed to resemble a piece of jewelry that can be worn with other accessories such as bracelets or a watch”.

One of the big challenges in developing Charm was the fact that it took longer to develop Charm, than a typical smartphone. Ko said that another challenge with Charm was packaging all of the functions other smart bands have, into a much smaller space. He went onto say that Charm is one of the smallest devices that Samsung has ever made. The team also studied various fashion brands’ websites to understand accessories as much as possible, while planning and designing Charm. Kim also notes that they came up with the design for Charm by researching trends, and heading to shops to try on women’s watches and other accessories.

You can read the full interview over on Samsung’s website. It’s a pretty interesting read about a pretty interesting wearable from Samsung. The Charm has already launched, but it’s coming to select markets at first, including Korea, Italy, France and Russia. No word on it launching in other countries yet.