Toyota Once Put A Car Key Inside Of A Wristwatch And It’s Amazing

While proximity key systems for cars have been around for decades, it seems that many automakers have different ideas on how their key fobs should look. Kia’s looks like a detonator, the one on the Volvo EX30 is a featureless plastic box, BMW used to offer a key fob with a touchscreen, and Tesla is going with flat plastic cards like you’d use to unlock a hotel room. However, one key fob stands out above the others, and not only is it surprisingly old, it was offered by Toyota exclusively for the Japanese market.

Over the past few years, several automakers have offered something called an activity key that you wear around your wrist. Water resistant and durable, it’s great in theory for hikers and other outdoorsy people, but in the grand scheme of things, something that looks like a FitBit but unlocks your car isn’t the greatest fashion statement in the world. Plus, it’s of limited usefulness outside of its narrow scope. Weirdly, Toyota seems to have figured this out and fixed it well before these modern activity keys came to prevalence.

This is the Toyota Smart Key watch, and it’s kind of brilliant. It does everything a modern activity key does, except it’s built into an actual watch that tells the time. It was first launched back in 2006 for the Toyota Crown, was made in collaboration with Citizen, and is as useful as it is stylish.

As you might expect, it works just like any other proximity key fob, and needed to be programmed to a car in order to do its duties. Of course, the cost of a smart key means that it’s a relatively rare thing today and only really useful if you have the car it’s paired to, but that hasn’t stopped second-hand examples going for actual brand name second-hand watch money. This one sold on Yahoo! Auctions for the equivalent of $219.

While this nifty accessory was most popular on the Crown sedan, Toyota did offer alternate versions that didn’t say “Crown” on the dial, including one branded for the Estima — the Japanese-market Previa — and one that just said “Toyota” for use with just about any smart key-equipped Toyota. Or rather, any smart key-equipped Toyota sold in Japan. See, different regions have different rules regarding radio frequency allocation, and one of these watches wouldn’t work with all smart key-equipped Toyotas. One Fijian Land Cruiser owner on the iH8Mud forum found this out the hard way.

Of course, while automakers were still figuring out the ultimate form of proximity keys. Several automakers offered credit card-style smart keys, and Toyota joined that bandwagon with the fourth-generation Lexus LS. In theory, this is even more discreet because you don’t need to wear it on your wrist, it can just live in your wallet and be slim. Of course, the downside to a credit card-sized smart key is if you forget your wallet in your jeans and throw them in the laundry, you might end up with one very soggy and non-functional key. Also, it’s probably not a great idea to have a wafer-thin card key in your back pocket, because the gluteus maximus can do a number on a thin and brittle piece of electronic hardware.

So, was Toyota’s shot at putting smart keys in watches a dead end? Not exactly. These days, car brands like Genesis offer key functionality on your smart watch, and while that’s great for anyone who wants to look like a Spy Kid, there’s something cooler and less distracting about an actual watch that works as a car key compared to a screen on your wrist.

Top graphic images: Toyota, Yahoo Auctions Seller

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