Top 5 Smart Watches of CES 2013
Jan 10, 2013 09:02 PM EDT by If you visited CES for the first time this year, you’d be forgiven if you thought you had wandered into a jewelry show by accident. It seemed like everywhere we turned we saw watches, but none of them were simple timepieces. From the I’m Watch with its custom version of the Android operating system to the COOKOO’s simple analog design, each of these devices pulls data from the Internet and brings it to your wrist.
Wondering whether the boss sent you an email or your wife sent you a private Facebook message? No need to pull our your phone. There’s a watch for that. These are the five best smart watches we saw at CES 2013.
I'm Watch ($389)
The most high-tech watch of the show is also one of the best looking. With a stunning matte aluminum chassis that also comes in titanium or gold and your choice of sleek, colorful bands, this product looks like it came from Milan, because it did. I'm Watch is the first product from Italian start-up I'm Spa and, though the company began shipping products last summer, the watch has been updated with a fresh UI and the ability to add apps.
The Italian watch comes with a custom version of Android that uses your phone's Bluetooth connection to grab your email, Facebook messages, texts and tweets so you can view them at a glance. The I'm Market is filled with additional apps you can use to improve your experience, from a metronome that keeps the time for you to a flashlight app for lighting your way. The watch also uses your phone's Bluetooth connection to make calls with its speaker and mic, but in our testing, the audio was too garbled to hear.
Available on imwatch.it, the I'm Watch is available today with a starting price of $389 for the aluminum model.
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January 12th, 2013 at 6:59 pm
I am enjoying my new CooKoo watch. I was a kickstarter backer. I think it’s a good looking watch, and it’s working just fine. Very minor connection issues, but usually no problem.
January 13th, 2013 at 6:14 pm
HA! you actually thijnk that the I’m watch is any good? Android police specifically said that it was “a $400 brick of failure that you strap to your wrist”
January 19th, 2013 at 3:07 am
The Cookoo watch article is filled with little inaccuracies. There is no Android app (yet) but there is an iPhone app (not a dedicated iPad app). The notifications are also not really lights like the easy to see oil or gas lights in a car. They are more like icons that are either blinking or off, but they’re not lit up. You won’t notice them glowing on your wrist for example, you’d have to actually check your watch face to see what has come in. The advertised battery life of the button cell is 12 months, depending on how often you get notifications and whether you enable the motorized vibration, the audible beep, both or neither. As the makers of the Cookoo watch add functionality to their app and fix the connectivity issues that have been plaguing their customers, I can only imagine the battery life getting progressively worse. More notifications from things that are currently not supported (such as emails and SMS) will only drain the button cell quicker. Yes you don’t have to charge it every week or two, but you’ll have to buy and replace the battery every 6 months or so.
January 29th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
I’m watch is a major scam. Stay away people. U will never receive it after u have paid in full