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Withings Activité Activite Steel smartwatch fitness tracker
Watches

Withings Adds Activité Steel Watch To Fitness Tracker Lineup

November 17, 2015

Withings Activité Activite Steel smartwatch fitness tracker

Last year, connected device maker Withings was one of the first companies to introduce a traditional looking watch with integrated activity tracking. The Swiss-made Activité (now called Activité Saphir) tracked movement, sleep patterns, and could even sense if you were swimming. A small inset dial would display your progress towards your movement goals and you could access deeper data through your smartphone. Unfortunately the price of the original Activité was as stunning as its looks – $450. Realizing that not everyone was looking to spend that type of money on a fitness tracking watch, Withings explored using different material to create a more accessible wearable device.

Earlier this year the company introduced the more budget friendly Activité Pop. The brightly colored, PVD coated device was at feature parity with its more expensive sibling but was constructed of cheaper materials and wasn’t billed as being “Swiss made.” Since brightly colors watches aren’t for everyone though, Withings has now added the stainless Activité Steel to their watch lineup.

The new device is identical to the (somewhat) budget friendly Activité Pop, except Withings has traded out the bright colors for polished metal an an understated black watch face. The $170 Activité Steel features a 8 month battery life, a face constructed from mineral glass, and a TPSiV Thermoplastic Elastomer (silicon) band. It is compatible with iOS and Android and starts shipping this week.

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by Doug Parker
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Movado Bold Motion Teal White HP
Watches

Movado Partners With HP On New Smartwatch

November 17, 2015

Movado Bold Motion Teal White HP

Following on the heels of Fossil and Tag Heuer, Swiss watchmaker Movado has announced its most advanced smartwatch to date. The Movado Bold Motion is based on the Bold line of watches and marks a large leap forward in what the company’s connected devices are capable of. Although Movado has released a few, more expensive, wearables, they were based on the Active X platform. The Active X platform allows watchmakers to easily add fitness tracking abilities to traditional looking watches but it is also very limited in capabilities. For the new Bold Motion, Movado has decided to partner with HP to provide additional functionality. [Of note, this is not HP’s first foray into smartwatches; last year the company partnered on the Michael Bastian Chronowing.] Movado’s new device maintains fitness tracking abilities but now adds notifications and haptic feedback. While the new smartwatch does not feature a screen, it has 13 single-color LED lights including a ring near 12 o’clock on the face and lights located at the hour marks. The Bold Motion is 44mm in diameter and is slightly thicker than the traditional Bold line. It is estimated to have a 7 day battery life and is available in black with either white or teal LEDs for $795. It is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

With the Movado Bold Motion, it finally feels like the company is starting to take smartwatch seriously. It is great to see Movado move beyond Active X and offer a deeper, more connected experience. We wish the company would have gone a step further though and included multicolor LEDs to allow the user to better understand what type of notification was being received. This would have kept the same sparse design, but allowed a higher level of notification customization. With the current design, Movado seems to only allow notifications to be adjusted at a very broad level; there is only the ability to customize which apps communicate with the watch and most everything outside of phone calls, emails, and texts seems to be relegated to “Other.” Head past the break for a Movado’s video about the Bold Motion.  

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by Doug Parker
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Mi Band Pulse Xiaomi Activity Tracker Gift Guide 2015
Wearable Technology

$15 Mi Band Fitness Tracker Adds Heart Rate Monitor

November 13, 2015

Mi Band Pulse Xiaomi

Believe it or not, chances are you have never heard of the company responsible for selling a quarter of the world’s wearable devices (*based on Q1 2015 numbers). When you hear sales number like that, you think of Fitbit or Jawbone or maybe even Apple, but it is actually Chinese technology company Xiaomi. And the company hasn’t been at it very long either; they introduced their first wearable during the second half of 2014 – the bargain priced Mi Band. Well, a year later, Xiaomi has updated the Mi Band to include an Optical Heart Rate Monitor. For less than a Jackson ($15 or 99 Yuan) you can buy the Mi Band Pulse, a rubberized bracelet that tracks your activity and sleep patterns, alerts you to notifications / phone calls, and records your heart rate. For the time being, no other fitness tracker comes even close to competing on price / features. The wearable is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Sadly there is no word on when Xiaomi plans to release the Mi Band Pulse outside of China and resellers are asking for a sizable premium on eBay.

Products such as Mi Band Pulse exemplify a larger trend in the wearable category. It seems that fitness trackers are in a race to the bottom. With entries such as Garmin and Misfit, people have begun to expecting more for less from their fitness trackers. When a $15 Mi Band Pulse offers extremely similar features to a $180 device (the Jawbone UP3), who is going to buy the $180 device. The feature set for fitness trackers can only expand so far and, beyond a phone app, there is very little software interaction by the end user. As long as it tracks your movement, one device is as good as another. Smartwatches, on the other hand, are rising in prices. This is partly due to the complexity of the wearable but also because buyers are expecting higher-end and higher-end finishes on the hardware. With such a complex device, there is a huge difference between a bargain brand and a higher end device. The software required to run a smartwatch and allow the user to interact with it needs to be very well thought out and executed near perfectly; unless you are licensing Android Wear, a tremendous amount of resources are required to achieve this. I think we will continue to see stratification between different types of devices in the wearable category and we are fascinated to see how the whole thing settles out over the next few years.

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by Doug Parker
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Trivoly Traditional Watch Smartwatch Convert
Watches

Trivoly Promises To Turn Any Watch Into A Smartwatch

November 13, 2015

Trivoly Traditional Watch Smartwatch Convert

We realize that smartwatches aren’t for everyone. People love the look and feel of their traditional time piece and aren’t willing to switch to a destined-to-be-obsolete wearable device. This doesn’t mean that they don’t want some of the abilities of a smartwatch though. A new startup is hoping to solve this dilemma; Trivoly has created a slim disk that serves as a mini connected device. Simply pair the namesake device with its app and attach it to the bottom of your traditional watch via reusable micro suction cup tape. Whenever you receive a notification, the Trivoly will silently vibrate and two bright, multicolor LEDs will light up. You can use the app to filter which notifications are passed on to the device and customize how the wearable alerts you. Trivoly is available in two versions, the Trivoly 1 and Trivoly 2. Both devices feature fitness tracking ability but the slightly more expensive Trivoly 2 adds an optical heart rate sensor. If you are still looking for a bit more “smart functionality,” both Trivoly models hide a 4-way directional button that allows you to control music playback on your phone (and they claim your Sonos speakers) and remotely activate the shutter on your phone’s camera. Trivoly is currently doing a Kickstarter and expects to ship in February. The two models are currently priced at $99 and $129 and feature a 4 day battery life..

Trivoly is a very interesting concept and a great compromise. Despite being a bit rough around the edges, we have little doubt that it will find an audience. The concept is fantastic and the execution solid. But there is some room for improvement. Even though it is only 3mm thick, we wish it could be even thinner – on your wrist millimeters quickly add up. Also we are disappointed with the LEDs being used in the prototype; they appear to be a bit clunky and bright, like those on a squeeze-flashlight. it would be amazing to see lights utilized that are more like to those on the Misfit Shine 2 or Ringly, which are small, sharp, and bright, but don’t project their light everywhere. The first version of Trivoly looks very interesting, but we can’t wait to see what the company is able to achieve with version 2.

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by Doug Parker
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Fossil Q Misfit Shine Acquisition
Wearable Technology

Fossil Gets Serious About Wearables, Acquires Misfit

November 13, 2015

Fossil Q Misfit Shine Acquisition

If you were excited about Fossil’s highly publicized entrance into the wearable space a few weeks ago, things just got A LOT more interesting. Fossil has acquired Misfit, the makers of the very popular Flash and Shine activity trackers. The acquisition is valued at $260 million and will shift Misfit’s CEO, Sonny Vu, to Fossil’s CTO. It isn’t known exactly how Misfit and their products / IPs will be integrated into their new parent company, but Misfit has built a reputation for producing small, capable, inexpensive, and durable activity trackers, powered by relatively (compared to Fossil) mature phone apps. This expertise could be used by Fossil to help catapult the quality and capabilities of the company’s devices and software. It is not known how the acquisition will effect Misfit’s day-to-day operations or their current lineup of products; for the time being, I would not expect any significant changes.

Short term, I would look for elements of Misfit’s apps to be migrated into the Fossil Q app. Additionally I would expect to see key device firmware features such as Misfit’s auto-sleep-sensing algorithms make their way into the current Fossil wearable lineup. But we are most excited to see what future products are created from this acquisition. Misfit has some of the most distinctive looking wearable devices on the market. It would be fantastic to see some of the unique aesthetics from Misfit incorporated into future Fossil products. The Shine 2 is not only stunning though, it is also more featured pack than practically any wearable in its price point. This could bode particularly well for future Fossil Q Reveler and Dreamer models.

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by Doug Parker
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TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Smart Watch Smartwatch
Watches

TAG Heuer Officially Launches $1500 Carrera Connected

November 9, 2015

TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Smart Watch Smartwatch

TAG Heuer has not been short on opinions about smartwatches over the past 18 months. After the company’s outspoken CEO, Jean-Claude Biver, finally conceded late last year that something interesting could be done in the space, Tag Heuer has launched their first wearable device. Clearly positioned as a luxury item, the $1500 connected watch is based on the company’s iconic Carrera line of watches. The appropriately named Carrera Connected is the result of a partnership with both Intel and Google (the same companies that aided Fossil in the creation of their Q series of wearables).

TAG Heuer calls it the first “connected watch” that looks like a traditional timepiece and it is no surprise that the device has a luxury feel and a handsome, traditional design (if you ignore the rubber watch band). Crafted from titanium with sapphire glass, the Connected looks like a thick version of a traditional watch with a screen instead of a watch face; but I am not sure I would go as far to say that it is visually more like a traditional watch than other devices on the market. There is a key difference though, the TAG Heuer wearable is truly nearly identical to a Carrera; in fact, the electronics can be replaced with a traditional watch mechanics.  

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by Doug Parker
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TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Launch Live
Watches

Watch TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Launch Live At 11am ET

November 9, 2015

TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Launch Live

After over a year of publicly ping-ponging on their view of smartwatches, TAG Heuer will officially launch their Carrera Connected today at 11am ET. You can follow along and watch the unveiling live via the embedded YouTube feed after the break. Besides a partnership with Intel and Google (who also worked on Fossil’s Q series), little is known about the device. One of the only rumors thus far about the smartwatch is that it will likely include upgradable internals. This would push the Carrera Connected closer to being a true keepsake device versus a fashionable consumer electronic.

Besides a statement from almost a year ago that TAG Heuer would not enter the smartwatch market unless they were able to offer something completely unique, a quote from the company’s CEO, Jean-Claude Biver, in this Sunday’s edition of Swiss newspaper Le Matin is one of the only official comments on features. Biver states that, “Our watch will have almost the same features as an Apple Watch, but I don’t want to say too much.” We find it odd that Biver would declare the TAG Heuer device is almost like an Apple Watch after the company dismissed it as a “toy” last fall.

We can’t wait to see what TAG Heuer has up its sleeve! Head past the break to watch the unveiling live at 11am ET.

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by Doug Parker
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