Back in October of last year, reports came through focusing on an investment Google made in the Chinese company, Mobvoi. That was not the only Google-connection to the company though, as the company was founded by ex-Googlers, Zhifei Li and Mike Lei . At the time of the reports, it was known Mobvoi was working on a new smartwatch, dubbed the Ticwatch. Although, in spite of the Google connections, this was not a smartwatch which runs on Android Wear and instead makes use of the company’s own Ticwear OS.
Not long after the reports came through, the Ticwatch became official and saw its market debut take place in China back in November. However, for those who like the look of the smartwatch and would consider this as their next wearable purchase, at the moment China does seem to be the only place where you can pick it up. It is believed the company is considering releasing an international version of the Ticwatch at some point, although, details on this are very light at the moment with no firm time-frame of when you can expect the smartwatch to reach international markets. On a positive note though, The Ticwatch on show at MWC was one which did display in English, which is a noticeable difference from its Chinese counterpart, and could be a good sign that the smartwatch is at least being prepared for other markets.
Either way, at MWC this week we were able to get a little hands-on time with the Ticwatch. The watch itself comes equipped with a 1.5-inch transflective TFT LCD display. The Ticwatch offers wireless charging, much like the Moto 360 and seems to sport a similar design and look to the Moto 360 in general. The Ticwatch connects over WiFi and comes with Bluetooth 4.1 support and makes use of a MediaTek MT2601 processor. Following in the general smartwatch trend, this is also a smartwatch which offers fitness features including a heart rate monitor and as mentioned, is a smartwatch which runs on Ticwear OS, which is currently at version 3.0. For those interested in taking a closer look at the Ticwatch, you can do so by checking out the gallery below.
