Samsung released new watch faces for its Galaxy Watch devices on March 31 that tell users the current time on different planets in the solar system. Dubbed Galaxy Time, the South Korean tech giant revealed that these watch faces were developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). There are a total of eight clock faces corresponding to the eight planets. Along with the current time on the planets, these watch faces also share other relevant data about these celestial bodies.
“In this project, “Galaxy” really says it all,” said Mario Winter, vice president of marketing at Samsung Electronics Germany, in a post on its German newsroom announcing the new watch face. Together with ESA, one of the largest partners in space travel, we have developed a watch face that offers Samsung Galaxy users a new and unique way to explore our solar system. With scientific data provided by ESA to Samsung developers, Galaxy Time users will have the opportunity to easily see beyond our home planet to planetary neighborhoods on their Samsung Galaxy Watch.
ESA scientist Melanie Heal explained that despite being part of the same star, the Sun, different planets in the Solar System revolve around it and rotate on their axis at different speeds than Earth. As a result, what we experience as days, hours and seconds is completely different for each of the seven other planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
To develop the Galaxy Time watch face, Samsung used ESA’s data on the rotation speed and orbit of eight planets around the Sun. The time users will see is not necessarily the exact time of these planets but a representation of them relative to Earth time. In addition to time, the faces also provide interesting insights into the Solar System, such as the distance of neighboring planets from the Sun and Earth, the number of their moons, their precise position every second, and the planets’ seasons.
Samsung revealed that the idea behind the watch face came from creative agency Leo Burnett in Germany, while creative brand consultancy MetaDesign in Berlin led the development of Galaxy Time. These watch faces are compatible with all Galaxy Watch devices that run Wear OS, which is Galaxy Watch 4 or later.
