Swiss watchmakers dismissed smartwatches as a passing fad. Then, they casually brushed off critics who said the Apple Watch and Android Wear could hurt the Swiss watch industry. And now, those self-same watchmakers are enlisting the help of a software company to make their regular wristwatches smarter without sacrificing on style.
Swiss watchmakers Frederique Constant, Mondaine, and Alpina teamed up with the motion-tracking software company Fullpower to create a new, smartwatch platform called MMT Horological, to bring fitness and sleep tracking to traditional watches. The software, called MotionX, will be installed on many upcoming Swiss-made wristwatches, with the hope that the slightly smarter watch will triumph over the highly digitized smartwatches made by Apple and Google’s Android Wear partners.
Related: Read out Withings Activité and Activité Pop reviews
Much like the Withings Activité, these Swiss-made Horological smartwatches will have sleep and motion tracking technology built inside and a companion app to go with them. The MotionX software will keep tabs on activity, while the Sleeptracker software will monitor the wearer’s sleep patterns and offer up smart alarms. The watches will always show the correct time and date, but they’ll also coordinate with your phone to send you active alerts and coach you. All your data will be backed up and restored on the MotionX cloud.
In addition to offering users Fitbit-like activity tracking, these smarter wristwatches will maintain the classic good looks of their traditional, Swiss counterparts. To top it all off, they’ll also offer 2 years or more of battery life. The first of these watches are expected to arrive in June, but many companies may announce the watches ahead of time. It’s unclear what the pricing will be, and it remains to be seem just how many people want a traditional-looking watch that offers up a few smart features — especially as digital smartwatches become more useful and long-lasting.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.