At the beginning of the 1980s, the then Department for Pathological physiology of the Charité Neuro-psychiatric Clinic started working on bio feedback equipment as support for relaxation training, within the framework of research into sleep. They began with a "crafting project’ for creating a resistance/ frequency converter, in conventional analogical transistor technology. The skin resistance was converted into a variable, continuous tone or into a pulse sequence. The electronics were built into a flashlight casing, a modified receiver, or an alarm clock midimatik (Ruhla). As electrodes, the button of an anorak, a metallic thimble or special, self-made stainless steel electrodes were used. The audio signals were transmitted through earphones, miniature loudspeakers or buzzers resp. piezoelectric oscillators. For the basic setting, a potentiometer (initial state around 1 pulse/second) was used.
In 1986, within the framework of scientific research at the Institute for Pathological Physiology (IPP) of the Charité in Berlin, the foundation was laid for a novel, regulation-diagnostic approach based on chronobiology, for analysing time series data. Through intermediate stages, the biofeedback device was converted to a stress testing device and in miniaturised form to the PSYRET device (SMD technology), in cooperation with the Jänschwalde AG power plant, and an interface with the KC85-2 home computer.
From the 1990s onward, the monitoring devices for measuring skin resistance "HIMEM" and the Technical Sleep Log "ESMEM" came into being, in cooperation with the GeTeMed company.
With the help of these methods, a set of studies in the area of stress research, sleep research, space medicine, special pedagogy and in music impact research yielded new scientific findings in the areas of the psychophysiology, chronobiology and chronomedicine. In 2008, Chronomar GmbH was established.
The core product, the SMARD-Watch®, was developed in 1997 by the Institute for Stress Research (I.S.F) GmbH Berlin under the direction of Dr. H-U. Balzer and Professor. K. Hecht MD for use in human subjects. The first test of the SMARD Watch® in an animal subject (dog) took place in the year 2000 at the ISF. The substantive principles of chronobiological regulation diagnosis were developed at Institute for Stress Research Berlin. These methods were refined and developed in the context of the music impact research in the context of the Humans and Music Research Network of the Mozarteum University, Salzburg. Since 2001 the SMARD-Watch® has been used in a variety of scientific studies (i.e. clinical studies, studies in the area of special pedagogy, psychology, music and art impact research, music therapy etc.). The application in animals began in 2001 at Institute for Agrarian and Urban Ecological Projects (IASP) at the Humboldt University in Berlin and thus was applied in the context of various projects, such as behavioural studies of dogs and farm animals. The development of the SMARD Watch has been managed since 2007 in co-operation with the BITSz GmbH, the IASP and Frankenförder Research Association (FFG).
After founding Chronomar GmbH, the application possibilities of the smardwatch® were expanded by implementing new hardware and software tools (e.g. a module for measuring sound levels and a module for measuring the illuminance level), inter alia in cooperation with acceptance certification of the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration and with the aid of software for diagnostic stress testing. Simultaneously, work was being done on the further development of new hardware and software components.