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There has never been a better time to consider adding a smartwatch to your wrist. With two distinct categories to choose from – fully intelligent or hybrid – and technology companies like Apple, Samsung and Google mixing with watchmakers like Fossil and Tag Heuer, the market is as exciting as it is diverse.
Google should finally launches a smartwatch, dubbed Pixel Watch, in the fall, and Samsung is preparing a new watch. Then there is the perpetual success of the Apple Watch, the revival of Withings, and even some quality wearables of the Swiss founding fathers of the mechanical watch and famous rejection of change.
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Smartwatch
In our view, a watch is a smart watch when & # 39; she replaces her traditional face and her mechanical hands with a touch screen. Some hybrids do a bit of both, placing simpler displays inside a normal watch, but we'll discuss them later in this article.
Regarding smartwatch operating systems, such as computers and smartphones of the major players to consider. First, there is watchOS, which is the operation used exclusively by Apple Watch.
GearBrain
Then there is Wear OS, which belongs to Google and called Android Wear until 2018. The name has been changed to promote the fact that watches running Google's software work with iPhones as well as Android devices. Although Google does not yet make a smartwatch, Wear OS is present on smartwatches of many brands, from LG and Huawei to Misfit, Montblanc and Tag Heuer.
Early smartwatches suffered from less than a day battery life, uninteresting designs, and poor performance. Today, there have been great improvements in all these areas, with batteries of two or even three days, thinner models and increased performance with better applications, connectivity and features.
In most cases, smartwatches and sports, track walking, running, cycling and other activities, sometimes with the help of a built-in heart rate monitor. Smartwatches also excel in notifications, vibrating your wrist when you receive a phone call, text, e-mail or other type of message.
Apple
Apple
The Apple Watch is widely regarded as one of the most capable smartwatches on sale aujourd & # 39; hui. It is available in two sizes (with diameters of 38mm and 42mm), three different materials (stainless steel, aluminum and ceramic) and a wide selection of strap options.
New for this year's Watch 3 series, giving the watch an LTE (4G) connection so that it can connect to the Internet and receive SMS and phone calls without being connected to an iPhone via Bluetooth . However, the watch is only compatible with iPhones, and does not work with Android devices.
Prices start from $ 329 and go up to just over $ 1,300 for the Ceramic Watch Edition
Samsung and Sport Watch "clbad =" rm-shortcode "data-rm-shortcode- id = "HY65NR1531506976" data-rm-shortcode-name = "rebelmouse-image" id = "47d2c" src = "https://badets.rbl.ms/18166431/980x.jpg" /> GearBrain ]
Samsung has entered the smartwatch market with an Android Wear device, but has since made its way with Tizen.The latest offering is the Gear Sport, which offers a wide range of tracking options. training and fitness, but whose design we found disappointing.
To the credit of Samsung, Tizen uses a rotating bezel for navigation, reducing the need to touch the screen, which obscures your view and the covers in greasy fingerprints.
Samsung is expected to launch a new laptop called Galaxy Watch soon, which is scheduled to run the system. e of Wear Wear of Google. This prompted claims that Samsung is abandoning its own Tizen system in favor of Google. We should know about the IFA technology show in Berlin at the end of August
Wear OS
Google
Formerly known as from Android Wear, it is Google's smartwatch operating system. It is used by many manufacturers, including technology companies like LG and Huawei, but also watch and fashion brands like Kate Spade, Boss Hugo, Guess, Michael Kors and Fossil
Wear OS offers the same features of base as watchOS and Tizen. There are several customizable dials, apps to download and install, a notification system and different levels of fitness, sleep and exercise tracking.
Where Apple Watch has Apple Pay and Samsung Wearables use Samsung Pay, Wear OS watches are using … you guessed it, Google Pay. Not all models have NFC (a Google Pay requirement), but most do, and they can be used for in-store shopping rather than using your credit card.
model of a fashion brand, but climb to more than $ 1,200 for examples of the Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer.
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Although some differences relate to functionality and the variables are their design, the materials they are made of, and the name of the mark. Because the software is the same, there is not much difference in how each watch works or what it is able to do.
As we mentioned earlier – and recently reported – Google is expected to release its first own brand smartwatch later this year. Called Pixel Watch, it should be launched alongside the Pixel 3 smartphone at the company's annual event. Everyone on the market for a smart watch should wait and see what Google has in its sleeve before buying anything else.
Hybrid
Nokia
Generally speaking, the hybrid watch is the one that has a traditional face with physical dials, but also includes a Bluetooth connection, accelerometers to track the clock. exercise, and a companion smartphone app. Some hybrid watches also have a vibration motor to send silent notifications or alarms to your wrist, and most look like regular watches.
Although you can not write an email or call an Uber with a hybrid smartwatch, you can wear them. weeks or even months at a time before having to recharge or use a new battery.
Hybrid clock counting technology is rarely more precise or detailed than what your smartphone can handle. But not everyone carries a phone in his pocket all day, and it is often more convenient to take a look at his wrist rather than grabbing his phone and opening the phone. step counting application to check its progress.
in particular the numerous brands owned and managed by the Fossil group. As in the case of smartwatches, hybrid watches are manufactured by Misfit, Skagen, Michael Kors, Fossil himself and many others.
Most technology companies have moved away from the hybrid market, with the exception of Withings. The French company made a splash with its attractive Activite watch, launched in 2014 to respond to smartwatches of the time, considered ugly and too bulky for many consumers.
Nokia then bought Withings and started selling the same watches thanks to its new brand Nokia Health. The Finnish company has added a heart rate monitor and a simple monochrome LCD to the watch, which gives it more intelligence, but keeping the original recipe of the watch being slim and clbadically appealing. The result, called Steel HR, costs $ 180 and is available in two sizes, 36mm and 40mm
But this is not a commercial success for Nokia, which sold its Health division to Withings founder Eric Carreel in 2018. Nokia Health hybrid watches can still be purchased today, but Carreel promises to bring back the Withings name later this year, so it might be worthwhile to wait before making your purchase.
Switzerland
Frederique Constant
To not stay out of the way, the Swiss watch industry lends (at least some attention) to the boom of the smartwatch. Tag Heuer was a forerunner, partnering with Intel and Google to release the Connected in 2015.
This is a real smartwatch, in that it has a touch screen and works with OS Wear. It lacks a heart rate monitor, but in its last iteration has GPS for accurate tracking of performance and NFC for Google Pay.
Prices starting at $ 1200, the current model is available in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, and although stocky (about 10mm thick), its design matches the sporty look of clbadic watches of Tag.
Montblanc also jumped on the smartwatch with the $ 890 Summit, which uses Wear OS but lacks both NFC and GPS.
Finally, there are Swiss watchmakers who blend modern technology with their age-old craftsmanship. For example, Frédérique Constant has the Hybrid Manufacturer, pictured above, which is a self-winding mechanical watch, but with a "smart" module including Bluetooth and a fitness tracker.
This $ 3500 watch can, via the smartphone app, be configured to display a second time zone, battery life, or your daily walking relies on a second dial. As with other hybrids, the application shows more details and also offers sleep tracking. One last detail of this watch – and one for the watchmaking nerds out there – is the way the application shows how accurately the movement keeps time, how healthy it is, and when a service is due.
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