Connected timepiece quickly surges through its crowdfund goal
As the likes of Omega, Rolex and the rest of the Swiss watchmaker fraternity begin to accept that the Apple Watch is a threat, one company from the watch’s spiritual home is ready to do something about it.
The X-One H1 is a 47mm hybrid smartwatch designed by Conex Watches SA that uses Swiss mechanical movement and combines that with an electronic module to deliver the smarts. It has an automatic movement for hours, minutes and seconds with a perpetual calendar and a GMT to also provide dual time zones. It follows the Frederique Constant Hybrid Manufacture, which is set to beat the X-One H1 to market.
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The hybrid comes in four different models which all included a steel watch case lugs, sapphire crystal and a rubber strap. You can opt for a version with a ceramic bezel but you’ll have to pay more for that particular luxury.
In terms of the smarts, there’s a decent amount on board. It has motion sensors to count your steps, will let you control music playback with the crown and will help you reunite you with your phone if you’ve forgotten where you last put it.
While there is no touchscreen, there is a numbered linear display built into the watch face that can activate preset responses for calls and text message notifications to assigned contacts. There’s also alarm and stopwatch modes as a well as a Morse Code (yes, Morse Code) option to flash content of incoming messages using Morse Code on the linear display.
Conex Watches SA states that the watches will be upgradeable, letting you replace the electronic module to add new smarts. The companion app where you can customise all of the current smartwatch features will be available for both iOS and Android smartphones.
The X-One H1 is on Kickstarter and has already surged past its $35,000 goal with plenty of days left to run. This money will help finance production on both the hardware and software, with that process set to take place in April 2018 before the watches land with backers in October 2018. If you want one, you’ll need to part with $750, which is the super early bird price. Retail units will be significantly more costly at $1490 each.
We’ll be talking to the watch’s creator in the coming weeks to find out a bit more about the story and whether it is still on track to deliver its Swiss-made mechanical smartwatch.
