Swiss watchmaker Swatch was in the business of smartwatches long before the likes of Samsung, Google, Motorola, or LG. In fact, so was Microsoft. The two companies paired up ten years ago for the Swatch Paparazzi, a line of smartwatches that offered news headlines, sports scores, and other information through MSN Direct. Unfortunately, the Paparazzi wasn’t long for this world and the device failed to take off.
Swatch hasn’t made a smartwatch since (neither has Microsoft) but the company apparently has plans to introduce fitness functionality to its Touch line next year. Swatch confirmed the news in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, promising the “usual features” of a fitness watch. The Swatch Touch currently features an LCD on curved glass with six functions: time, date, chromo, alarm, timer, and beep on/off. It’s available in an array of colours and priced at $140.
It’s not clear if Swatch plans to add fitness functionality to the current Touch, or if the company will create a new 2015 Swatch Touch with fitness monitoring capabilities. If it’s the former, the company could conceivably keep prices pretty competitive. However, the promise of the “usual features” doesn’t exactly fill us with excitement. It’s as if Swatch is already phoning it in and admitting that this watch will be nothing special, that it is creating a smartwatch because it can’t afford not to. We can’t wait?
[source]WSJ[/source]
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