Smartwatches are still a new area of technology that is slowly gaining popularity as it continues to develop and become more refined. With some great new recent smartwatch arrivals and the approaching launch of Android Wear 2.0, consumers will now have even more fantastic options when it comes to watches. But one of the hesitations that many consumers have relates to aesthetics. Many smartwatches are bulky and unattractive. However, a smartwatch and a traditional watch don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Maintool, a company based in Paris and Madrid, has created a smartwatch band called Classi, which will bring smartwatch features to traditional watches.
Unlike smartwatches, which typically have digital displays that simulate traditional watch readouts, the Classi is simply a band and can be applied to any watch you already own. This adds flexibility, giving users the option to pick any watch they wish to use and turn it into a smartwatch. It also helps the watch look more like a classic watch and less like a computing device. The band comes with most of the things you’d expect in a smartwatch; a processor, battery, vibration motor, Bluetooth radio, accelerometer, and a button for input. It will be able to perform tasks similar to what a fitness tracker can do; it can count footsteps and calories, measure temperatures, and measure heart rate. The device can be charged using a magnetic charger. The Classi obviously won’t be able to do everything that an Android Wear smartwatch is capable of, especially due to the fact that it has no display, however, it does add many of the more important features of a smartwatch to mechanical watches. While it may not present too much of a problem with other types of technology devices, for a smartwatch, looks are important, as the device is intended to be worn on the user’s body. By making smartwatches look more like normal watches, Maintool is eliminating one of the biggest concerns that customers often have regarding smartwatches.
The price for the Classi watch band has not yet been announced, however, if the prices of the optional Indiegogo contributions reflect the final prices of the bands themselves, they range from $99 to $799, depending on style and quantity. No official release date has been issued, however, an estimated release date of April 2017 has been provided for most products by the company’s Indiegogo page, and when the straps launch the suggested retail price will $139, which could vary depending on the style of the strap and the leather used for it.
