There’s no doubt smart analogue watches are a classy affair, and the newest Swiss Horological Smartwatch from Alpina is no exception.
Touted as a “more casual, subtle look” compared to its all-steel predecessor, the Alpina is certainly a looker with its brushed stainless steel 44mm case, navy blue sunray dial and brown leather strap with red lining.
This has been Horological Smartwatches’ selling point since the Swiss-Silicon Valley Open Platform launched with Alpina, Mondaine and Frederique Constant last year: luxury looking (and priced) watches with hidden smarts. We don’t have much idea of how they’re selling but sales are obviously promising enough to keep Swiss watchmakers making them.
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Essentially, the features are very similar to the previous Alpina offering. The new blue model can keep track of daily steps, calories burned and total distance. Taking a cue from the reminders on Fitbits, Garmins and the Apple Watch, the smart analogue watch lets you customise active alerts to help remind you to move.
There’s also sleep tracking so you’ll get data on how much time you spent in deep sleep, light sleep, or awake. There’s even a ‘Dynamic Coach’ with the app that gives you tips, suggestions and information based on your activity and sleep goals.
The Horological Smartwatch stores your activity and sleep for 30 days without having to sync it to your smartphone, in case you don’t have auto-sync on. As an extra, the watch is also capable of smart alarms which are set to help you wake up at the best time in your sleep cycle without the grogginess.
And of course, the watch tells time. Apparently you’ll never have to set a time and date, which should be helpful for the jetsetters, as the smartwatch will change everything automatically based on what your phone is displaying. Plus the Worldtimer feature lets you keep track of what time it is back home.
The device promises two years (or more) of battery life or more, which is a huge difference from the usual two-day battery life of a smartwatch with a digital screen.
There’s no mention of water resistance capabilities yet, or price and release date but we’ll update once we find out.
We also don’t have a price or release date for this blue Alpina Horological Smartwatch. The 2015 range of eight styles started at around $1,000 and topped out at $2,595 for diamond-studded options so we’d expect $1,000+.
