Source www.t3.com
A few days ago it was held in Basel (Switzerland) the Baselworld, a show that brings together the leading watch brands in the world. To date, the producers of the show were not very interested in racing the field of smart watches. But this year, many smartwatches made an appearance at the fair, making it clear that something has changed in the sector.
The proposals were very different. Some manufacturers, such as TAG Heuer or Kairos, have opted for hybrid systems between a mechanical watch and a SmartWatch. While others, such as Frederique Constant Mondaine or have just built an activity monitor to watch analog dial and keeping aside notifications.
Here we review the best smartwatches presented at the BaselWorld 2015.
- TAG Heuer SmartWatch
One of the news more media coverage during Baselworld 2015 was when the Swiss brand TAG Heuer announced it was associated with Intel and Google to make its first SmartWatch. Although they did not reveal too many specific details about the project, they assured that the SmartWatch be upgradeable, ie interchangeable parts will not become obsolete within a few months. They also announced that they intend to offer more than just receive notifications from the smartphone, but we have to wait to see how they integrate this added value within an operating system like Android wear, which is not particularly customizable.
- Kairos SmartWatch
The Kairos is, along with that of TAG Heuer, more ambitious proposal. According to the manufacturer, it is the first hybrid of a mechanical watch and a SmartWatch. To achieve this, they have placed a transparent digital display above the analog face. The OLED display shows incoming notifications, but lets see the clock that is under him when nothing is happening. The system functions as a superposition of the analog digital information. The price you pay for being a “real” hybrid is that the SmartWatch is quite thick, more than 17 mm, which along with its 46 mm diameter, make it a fairly large and heavy watch.
- Mondaine Helvetica No.1 SmartWatch
Mondaine has chosen to add to their traditional watch technology to measure daily activity. For it has been associated with the company Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT). Through this collaboration, the SmartWatch uses MotionX technology (also used in smarbands Jawbone UP) to record very precisely the steps taken during the day and sleep cycles. The main analog face tells time, while the small, located at the bottom indicates the percentage of steps taken or sleep. The clock uses the Helvetica font for the numbers on the dial, hence its name. The synchronization is performed with the smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0 LE and a dedicated application, which is available for iOS and Android. The watch has a quartz module with a battery able to last more than two years. Although the official price is still unknown, it is expected to fall over 1000 €, and will arrive in autumn.