Tag Archives: smartwatch

The Citizen CZ Smart YouQ smartwatch uses NASA and IBM technology to ‘predict’ your fitness

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Dubbed the ‘Smarter Watch’, the CZ Smart doesn’t track you through the day… it anticipates your day in advance.

Watchmaking pioneer CITIZEN just revealed its latest offering at CES this year – the CZ Smart watch + the YouQ app, designed in partnership with IBM Watson and NASA Ames Research Center. While looking just like any premium watch, the next-gen CZ Smart’s true functionality is unlocked when combined with the YouQ app that gathers, parses, and learns from the data provided by the smartwatch. The watch comes in a variety of styles, sporting CITIZEN’s iconic design with a rotating bezel, a crown and two pushers sitting beside the circular display, and the ability to swap between leather, silicone, mesh, and link variants.

Designer: CITIZEN

“The latest CZ Smart watch is a game-changing product that brings CITIZEN’s legacy of watchmaking together with best-in-class research and technology of NASA and IBM, directly to wearers’ wrists,” said Jeffrey Cohen, President at CITIZEN Watch America. “Coupled with the proprietary CZ Smart YouQ application, this smartwatch is a revolution in wearable wellness.”

The unisex watch comes with a metal body made from 316L stainless steel. Now in its second-gen (the first gen was released back in 2020), the watch also comes with the YouQ app that uses machine learning to constantly learn more and more about you so the longer you wear the watch, the more personalized its experience gets. The smartwatch sports a 1.28″ AMOLED display that offers high visibility in any time of the day, and the battery lasts for 24 hours on a full charge. The watch also comes with a built-in gyroscope, altimeter, barometer, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, SP02, and an ambient light sensor. It runs the Wear OS by Google, but is interoperable with both Android and iOS devices.

The CZ Smart YouQ app is perhaps the most impressive bit of tech here. Developed in partnership with IBM and NASA, the YouQ app possesses the ability to crunch data in ways that other smartwatches can’t. While smartwatches just present diagnostic data like your heart rate, sleep quality, fitness, weather, etc, the YouQ goes into prognosis, actively predicting and giving you actionable insights. It studies your sleep patterns and tells you when to sleep to get the best quality rest, tracks your behavior and provides key insights to help you stay more focused and less fatigued, and lets you generate Alert Scores to test your mental acuity. Alert Scores are generated when a wearer takes a custom-designed Alert Monitor test, a consumer-facing iteration of NASA’s Psychomotor Vigilance Task Test (PVT+), originally developed to determine the mental acuity of astronauts.

The Citizen CZ Smart 2nd gen watches will be available starting March 2023 on CITIZEN’s website with a price range of $350 – $435. The proprietary YouQ application will be available at the same time, although it’s only designed to work with the 2nd gen CZ Smart range of watches, and a hybrid series that will launch at a later date.

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This concept smartwatch can be recharged even while it’s still on your wrist

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The first smartwatches amazed many people, especially tech-savvy ones that saw science fiction becoming a reality right before their very eyes. That excitement, however, was a bit short-lived when reality did finally set in, calling into question the purpose and usability of the new type of device. It has been years since the first generation launched, but smartwatches still exhibit one particular problem that has been around from the very beginning: battery life. While there are definitely smartwatches that can run for a few days before needing to be placed on a charger, these often accomplish this feat by cutting corners in other aspects. This smartwatch concept design, in contrast, makes no compromises and solves this battery charging problem by flipping the conventional smartwatch design on its head, almost literally.

Designer: Andrea Mangone

Smartwatches are caught in an even bigger conundrum than smartphones. They set the expectations of powerful smart devices on your wrist, yet their very size severely limits the battery you can put in them. Manufacturers, designers, and eventually customers often have to decide which aspect to prioritize, and battery life is often the one that gets left out. Smartwatches that advertise days or even weeks of battery life often achieve those numbers by limiting features, using a non-color display, or running software that isn’t compatible with the majority of smartwatch apps available today.

One of the biggest problems with having to charge smartwatches is the fact that you have to take them off before you can actually charge them on some charging pad or dock. This has been the status quo ever since the first smartwatches came out, and it seems that everyone has accepted it as the only design possible. The Vessel concept design challenges that assumption and turns the charging design upside-down. Instead of the smartwatch being placed on a charging pad, Vessel has a charging module that attaches to the smartwatch, even when you’re still wearing it.

Vessel comes with a pebble-shaped battery that magnetically latches onto the face of the smartwatch. It doesn’t charge the smartwatch wirelessly, as you might assume but instead uses pogo pin contacts like those from the early days of smartwatches. You won’t notice these contact points on the smartwatch itself because they’re integrated into the watch’s face, making it look like they’re part of its design.

While you’re charging the smartwatch, you can still keep on using it, though in a limited capacity. The battery module has its own limited display, and it will only show the time and battery status. Notifications are paused in order to speed up the charging time, but activity detection and sensors will continue to work. The module only has a 500mAh capacity, so it will still take an hour to fully charge a watch. Of course, you don’t have to take it off during that period, so you won’t be missing valuable health data in the meantime.

It’s definitely an interesting angle to solving the smartwatch charging problem, though it probably comes with its own drawbacks. The most notable would be that it locks the smartwatch to a very specific design because of the data and charging contact points, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done elegantly. It’s just a matter of thinking outside the box, and Vessel has definitely pulled that off with aplomb.

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Xiaomi Watch S2 with AMOLED display and circular stainless steel casing is a pretty capable smartwatch

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When you’re first to the market with a product, you have a tactical consumer advantage. But you always run the risk of giving birth to fake copies and imitations. When I had a first glimpse of the brand-new Xiaomi Watch S2, it looked almost a rendition of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

I would have counted it out right then if the construction material was identical as well. Perhaps there are some distinctions, despite a similar appearance. Let’s delve deeper and see how Xiaomi’s new smartwatch fairs as close, more economical option to the Galaxy Watch 5 and perhaps the new Apple Watch 8 or Ultra.

Designer: Xiaomi

Xiaomi Watch S2 was unveiled at the brand’s biggest launch event in China on Sunday, December 11. The smartwatch was revealed alongside Xiaomi’s new 13 series smartphone, a pair of Buds 4 and the new MIUI 14 amid a host of other gadgetry.

A successor to the WatchS1 launched last year; the Watch S2 is introduced in a stainless steel casing. It is designed in two dial sizes: 42mm and 46mm, which makes the smart timepiece suitable for almost all wrist sizes.

Wrapped within the circular stainless steel casing is sapphire glass and both the watch sizes support AMOLED touchscreen panel, although there are two physical pushers on the right side of the dial to toggle through the watch features. The screens on the 42mm and 46mm Watch S2 measure 1.32-inch and 1.43-inch respectively and support 466 x 466 pixels resolution.

As a smartwatch, the Xiaomi Watch S2 comes with a host of health and fitness features. In addition to the customary heart rate monitor, the watch has SpO2 sensor, features menstrual cycle monitor, a sleep, and a stress tracker. With support for over 100 sports tracking modes, the wearable integrates Xiaomi’s interesting breathing exercise monitor.

Xiaomi wearable can measure body composition including the wearer’s muscle mass, fat percentage, protein volume and more. Through the pandemic, trackers/watches with temperature monitors have seen a big surge. Staying with the trend, Xiaomi has sandwiched a skin temperature sensor amid the plethora of other features (some of which are discussed above).

Both sized versions of the Xiaomi Watch S2 feature GPS and water resistant up to 5 meters. With the option for Bluetooth calling, the 42 and 46mm models are powered by rechargeable 305mAh and 500mAh batteries respectively. The new wearable launched by Xiaomi is already retailing in China starting at $140 in silver, black, and light gold colors paired with leather or silicone strap options. There is no word from Xiaomi on when it intends to toss the smartwatch over domestic borders yet.

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Bugatti collaborates in Austria for the first carbon-fiber smartwatch to time your laps in a Chrion

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Bugatti Chiron is one of the fastest production cars on the planet. When you take it to the track, you will need a capable timekeeper to record the matrix. This is not the intention – yet not short of the idea -that Bugatti has teamed with Viita Watches in Austria to create a watch that is constructed with a full carbon fiber housing.

The first-of-its-kind watch constructed completely with strong and lightweight material on the outside, the Bugatti Carbone Limited Edition smartwatch is designed with millimeter perfection to go with the hypercar from the French automaker.

Designer: Bugatti

The watch is not only a black beauty with carbon-gorgeous housing, it is a smartwatch capable of making head turns with its features. Comprising a 390*390 pixels AMOLED sapphire glass touchscreen, the watch boasts a 16.7 million color display and compared to its close cousin – the Bugatti Ceramique Edition One – the smartwatch is nearly 13 percent lighter.

According to Bugatti, the battery size of the Carbone Limited Edition smartwatch is 22 percent more than the Ceramique Edition one, yet it is a lighter model, thanks to carbon fiber as a choice of construction material. A visual amalgamation of black on blue, the Carbone has an always-on display and a battery life that lasts up to 15 days without GPS.

Taking of which, the world’s first carbon-fiber smartwatch is integrated with a GPS sensor. It’s embedded with a range of features to monitor an individual’s health and physical activity alongside recording a Bugatti’s laps on the track. The latter permits the wearer to keep tabs on the car’s speed, acceleration, and lap times automatically.

Other than this, the Bugatti Carbone can monitor stress levels and about 90 different sports and health functions. For instance, the dual sensors on the caseback can monitor heart rate and heart rate variability. It is 100 m water resistant and allows one to pair the carbon fiber housing with a matching gray/black silicone or nylon strap (both provided in the box). Compatible with iOS 13.0 and Android 7 or higher, the $2,700 Bugatti Carbone Limited Edition is strictly limited to 2,500 pieces (each engraved with a serial number to mark exclusivity).

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Huawei Watch Buds leak suggests it will come with built-in wireless earbuds

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Thanks to the retirement of headphone jacks on more recent phones, wireless earbuds have started becoming a staple of modern mobile life. But while they offer the convenience of freedom from tangling cables, their diminutive sizes make them easy to lose. More importantly, the need for a charging case to keep them in means an additional object that you need to carry with you all the time and also potentially lose in the process. There have been some attempts to solve this problem, often by tracking the location of the buds or the case and warning the owner if they stray too far. Huawei, however, seems to have designed a rather crafty solution that removes the need for a charging case and, coincidentally, gives its own smartwatch another reason to exist.

Designer: Huawei (via Huawei Central)

It wasn’t until recently that smartwatches became a more common consumer electronics device, in no small part thanks to Apple creating a niche for it. Not everyone, however, might be in need of an advanced fitness tracker and mobile health diagnostic device, but there will always be a few that will need TWS earbuds to go along with their smartphones. Huawei’s solution is simply to merge the two so that you get both for the price of one or probably the equivalent price of one and a half.

Huawei recently teased its next wearable called “Huawei Watch Buds,” which is a rather odd name that sounds like a mashup of two devices. Apparently, that’s really the case, and a batch of leaked photos and a video shows a smartwatch with a pair of wireless earbuds hidden inside. Conversely, it could also be a pair of buds that come with a charging case that happens to be a smartwatch as well. Either way, the design is both ingenious but also odd, and it trades in some problems for others.

Given the fact that it has to store earbuds inside, the smartwatch’s body is unsurprisingly quite thick. This comes at a time when most non-sports smartwatches are trying to go on a diet to make them more presentable and more appealing to buyers. The earbuds themselves are also quite small by necessity, and they come as small capsule-like devices that might instill worries of getting stuck inside your ear.

As for the watch itself, it isn’t that remarkable, especially with the large bezels around the display. Huawei will have to include a larger-than-usual battery inside to offset the needs of the earbuds, further adding to the watch’s size and weight. It remains to be seen how effective this solution will be, but one has to give Huawei some credit for thinking outside the box and designing something so interesting that you might actually want to buy it to try it for yourself.

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Built to military standard, Garmin’s Instinct Crossover has luminescent analog hands with modern smartwatch features

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Smartwatch is a phenomenon that has overpowered traditional watch aesthetics. Hybrid watches present an option that lives in the grays of both worlds, but somewhere these timepieces haven’t clicked with enthusiasts. Offering a watch with little compromises for the collectors and outdoorsy, Garmin has launched an undeniable amalgamation of an analog watch with smartwatch features.

The watch, blurring the lines between traditional and modern, is called the Instinct Crossover. Garmin’s new Instinct is created for individuals with a bent for retro with smartwatch functionality, to keep them at the top of the game. Robust enough to be worn for outdoor adventures, the watch has a case, dial, and battery life to put it above the competition.

Designer: Garmin

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The Garmin Instinct Crossover features a long-lasting fiber-reinforced nylon case which ensures the watch matches military standards in durability. It also features temperature, dust, and shock resistance and touts 100 meters of water-resistant rating. But that’s not even the best part yet! Available in four different colors, the Crossover imbibes Garmin pedigree: It is presented with Garmin’s health and wellness features which include sleep and heart rate tracking, along with other fitness matrices like VO2 max, pulse oximetry, and recovery times to name a few.

As with other Instinct and Vivomove’s from Garmin, the Crossover also gets multisport GPS, GPS tracking, and TracBack routing options for rural and urban adventures. When you are in the great outdoors, the battery life of your smartwatch can be a worrying factor; Garmin Instinct Crossover jumps over the hindrance with an impactful solar charging option. Given the good light condition, this feature scales up the watch’s battery life to 70 days while using all the smartwatch features i.e. Put it on battery saver and you can give the Crossover an almost infinite life as an old school watch to tell time, display date, and function as a stopwatch.

You also have an option of going for the base version – a non-solar watch – which according to Garmin gives you nearly 30-day battery life in smartwatch mode, and over 110 hours with GPS functionality. The watch hands on the analog dial illuminate to read time at night, while the high-resolution digital display clearly exhibits information with hands drawing to the 9:15 position to ensure visibility. Garmin is already selling the Instinct Crossover starting at $500; if you want a tactile watch with retro modern aesthetics, you should go for it right away.

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Montblanc x Naruto collection celebrates the power of storytelling and self-expression

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As one of the most popular and best-selling mangas (Japanese comics) in history, it’s not unusual to see “Naruto” printed or even engraved in many products, some of them expensive, limited editions even. Naturally, these items are meant to appeal to fans of the character and the franchise, which happens to correspond to a certain market demographic. It might come as a surprise, then, that the not-so-silent Ninja is now part of Montblanc’s family with a collection that encompasses a variety of products, ranging from pens to bags to even a smartwatch. This, however, isn’t simply fan service but is almost a perfect match for the marque’s love of storytelling and the tools that enable that kind of written tradition.

Designer: Montblanc

Given its origin as a manga, it’s too easy to brush off Naruto as something for kids, though the mature themes in its long-running story would suggest otherwise. Like many franchises that have now spanned generations, there are many topics, themes, and even philosophies that can be gleaned from its stories, and Montblanc zeroed in on two of the most important ones for readers and fans of the series. At its heart, Naruto is a story of stories and growth, where the titular character learns to express his own identity through stories, lessons, and values passed through both oral and written traditions.

Given that theme, the Montblanc x Naruto collection encompasses an almost random selection of items from the brand’s portfolio. There are the usual culprits of pens and notebooks, but there are also accessories like leather bags and pouches. There’s even a limited edition Montblanc Summit 3 Naruto smartwatch that puts the teenage hero front and center, presuming you keep the pre-installed watch face, of course.

More than just Naruto-branded items, these products carry symbolism that Montblanc explains is important to the transmission of knowledge, especially in this fictional world. These symbols are sometimes discreet, like those engraved on the side buttons of the Wear OS smartwatch or the subtle cloud patterns on the fountain pen’s barrel. At other times, they are extravagant, like the fountain pen’s 14K carat solid gold nib engraved with the symbol of Naruto’s hometown.

The variety of products in this Montblanc x Naruto collection is definitely enough to appeal to fans of all ages and genders, though do expect to pay a pretty penny for these doubly branded items. Of course, unlike your typical Naruto merchandise, these are meant not only to last but even to become heirlooms you can pass on to a younger generation of Naruto fans, almost like how they do it in the manga.

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Pixel Watch iFixit teardown reveals its beauty is only skin deep for now

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Google finally launched the first smartwatch under its own Pixel brand, and the reception of the wearable device has been a bit mixed. Its unique dome-like display definitely gives it a unique visual personality, but the jury is still out when whether that’s actually a strength or a liability. Even with years of references and lessons from other manufacturers, the Pixel Watch seems to have all the makings of a first-gen device, especially once you start to open it up. As iFixit discovered, the smartwatch’s simple yet attractive design doesn’t extend inside, and the device could be a nightmare for both owners and technicians that need to simply repair a cracked screen or a loose crown.

Designer: Google

Unlike almost all Wear OS smartwatches today, the Pixel Watch does away with the visible external bezels with a very curved glass that covers the screen. It’s almost like the Apple Watch, except that it comes in a circular shape. Like the Apple Watch again, the Pixel Watch utilizes a digital crown, but the similarities end there. The crown has been noted to look a bit cheap, and at least one reviewer has experienced the domed screen cracking for no apparent reason.

These flaws on their own wouldn’t be too disastrous if it were easy to fix the Pixel Watch, which isn’t the case yet for this first attempt. To its credit, the back is easily removable with some heat and prying, and iFixit a mysterious adhesive that could be good news for repairs in the future. The screen can also be pried off with the same techniques, but it cannot be disconnected unless you really dig inside.

The small, squishy battery needs to be removed first, which needs a bit of heat that could be a disaster waiting to happen. There is a maze of screws and components that you need to get out of the way first before you can even disconnect the display cable. Even after all that, it is nearly impossible to remove the crown and buttons without risking irreparable internal damage. Considering these mechanical parts are likely to fail at some point, that’s not a reassuring scenario.

To be fair, this is Google’s first smartwatch, so there’s still ample room for improvement on all fronts. It’s not a great first step, though, especially considering how late it is already in the game. Perhaps more worrying is that this is a company that is notorious for suddenly canceling products and services, even those that many people have heavily invested in already. It’s going to be a tense waiting game to see if future Pixel Watches will be able to rise to the challenge or be unceremoniously put to pasture after one or two tries only.

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Hublot adds time and function to football with Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 smartwatch

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2022 is going to end on a high for all football fanatics. The FIFA World Cup in Qatar is the ultimate year-ending spectacle I for one am desperately looking forward to. Come November; whether you are a referee on the field, coach in the dugout, or a supporter in the office cubicle; Hublot has a new connected watch to keep you in the heart of the action all the time.

Partnering with FIFA for the World Cup 2022, Hublot has extended its scope in the Big Bang e line-up to release the Hublot Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. This connected watch is designed for the world’s largest football tournament by Hublot which is the official timekeeper of the FIFA World Cup now for the fourth consecutive time. The smartwatch intends to time all 64 games of the mega event and be your favorite workout companion thereafter.

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Designer: Hublot

Hublot and FIFA collaboration is a celebrated affair since 2010 when the Haute horology giant tied knot with FIFA. The watchmaker has etched its name in each football buff’s consciousness by outfitting referees of FIFA men and women World Cups with essentially designed Big Bang e-smartwatches ever since. In spite of that, The Big Bang E FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is one of the finest Big Bang e’s to date. The 44mm polished titanium case and black ceramic bezel are overpowered by an AMOLED touchscreen display touting 127dpi resolution. The official variant of the watch will arrive in a burgundy dial paired with a black colored rubber strap finished with burgundy lines. This look is inspired by the flag color of Qatar, the country which will be hosting the world cup.

Drawing power from a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor, the watch comes with a 400 mAh battery, claimed to offer a day’s battery life, and can be customized for each fan willing to spend on the state-of-the-art timepiece. The fans can choose the dial and strap-in colors of any of the 32 teams participating in the FIFA World Cup kicking off on November 20 with the game between Qatar and Ecuador. Until then, the Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be in a ‘countdown mode:’ keeping note of the days to kickoff.

The watch runs Wear OS 3.0 to let the user access apps on Google Play. Additionally, it can display fast, simple in-match statistics on the dial for quick fan consumption. The dial will show up team line-ups and player profiles 15 minutes before each game and go into specially designed ‘match mode’ after kick-off to display highlights – including goals, game time, etc. – so you don’t miss a minute of the match your country is playing. Limited to just 1,000 examples, the Hublot Big Bang e FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 smartwatch will retail for $ 5,800.

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Pixel Watch unofficial unboxing reveals an interesting design with a few caveats

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Google’s first-ever smartwatch is about to be officially announced in a few days, but the Pixel Watch has, of course, already been leaked to death at this point. Google itself has shown off the smartwatch’s appearance here and there, but it hasn’t completely revealed its design from all sides and angles. Fortunately, we can look to unofficial information and sources for those details, allowing us to form a complete picture of the Pixel Watch. Unless Google makes a shocking U-turn, we might finally have everything there is to know about the Pixel Watch, at least from a design perspective, thanks to this super early unboxing of the device. But while the smartwatch’s somewhat unique design does pique our interest, it also raises a few questions about its usability and longevity.

Designer: Google

After years of speculation and wishful thinking, Google finally confirmed back in May that it was indeed planning to launch its first smartwatch under its own Pixel brand. It also gave a preview of that smartwatch’s design, which was admittedly like no other smartwatch on the market. There are still a few specific details missing, but the unique aesthetic of the Pixel Watch has been cemented in people’s consciousness by now. Apparently, someone on Reddit got their hands on one this early, and they generously shared images of what the wearable device would look like.

Unlike any other smartwatch or traditional watch so far, the Pixel Watch’s design can be likened more to a smooth and glossy pebble than a timepiece. It has a nearly domed top glass and an equally curved bottom, which would most likely make it wobble on top of any surface unless the bands are attached. It’s almost like a cross between an Apple Watch, which has a similarly curved display, and the typical round bodies of Wear OS smartwatches.

 

The design is admittedly novel and attractive, giving the Pixel Watch a unique visual identity that will help it stand out from the rest of the smartwatch market. It barely has any bezel, at least not that we can see, but it might just be a visual trick. There are already a few misgivings about how the display’s real bezels are underneath that domed glass, meaning that the actual active portion of the screen is quite smaller than the watch itself, leaving a sizable border around the edges.

Many smartwatches do have very visible and sometimes large bezels anyway, so that shouldn’t matter in theory. There are, however, some people that consider this design almost deceptive and definitely wasteful since you don’t have full access to the entire surface of the watch. Whether that “hidden” bezel has any practical function, we’ll have to wait and see.

The Pixel Watch has a seamless design where the body blends smoothly into the straps. This beautiful aesthetic, however, is only made possible by using a proprietary strap connector, not unlike what Apple does with the Apple Watch. Not only does this mean that you’ll be unable to use standard watch straps, it also means you’ll always be at the mercy of the few manufacturers that will make compatible straps. Once these companies, including Google, stop making such straps, you’ll be out of luck. The Pixel Watch is set to debut on October 6th at 10 AM ET.

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