Swatch announced that it’s planning to launch its first smartwatch in the upcoming months. According to the company, the new watch will have an extended battery life and can be used to make mobile payments.
Swatch CEO Nick Hayek said that the smartwatch can be connected without needing to be charged.
Hayek mentioned that the new Swatch smartwatch will run on both Windows and Android.
The company that will make the smartwatch is part of the Swatch Group, which is also the owner of high-end watch brands like Omega, Rado and Glashutte.
According to the company, the brands Rado and Omega have stayed away from the smartwatch business segment, but have been developing bendable batteries and flexible power packs.
Hayek said that they will add smartwatch functions to several Swatch model sometime this year.
He adds that the luxury watches’ displays are too small to be added any smart wearable upgrades.
No one knows for sure how will Swatch add the “no charge” feature, but some believe it will be inspired by other smarwatches that are already available on the market.
One of those smartwatches is Activite and Activite Pop, both manufactured by Withings.
These two smart wearables track basic metrics like sleep and steps and can communicate with a smrtphone via Bluetooth connectivity. The watches do not have a rechargeable system, but feature a button cell battery.
With this charging system, Withings says that the smartwatches can last up to eight months, if the Bluetooth radio activity is trimmed down and by not using the display to show the progress of the steps.
Compared to these watches, the Android wear smartwatches have a battery life that lasts a maximum of two days, while the Apple Watch needs to be recharged daily.
The first Swatch smartwatch will feature a mobile payment function and Hayek says that Swatch will be working with two large retailers from Switzerland.
Hayek has not revealed any more details about the mobile watch’s payment functionality, but some believe it will probably be based on the NFC technology.
Swatch’s profits went down by 27% last year because the company spent more money on production and marketing than in previous years.
Image Source: wsj
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.