The smartwatch market is finally blinking into life. Last year, 1.9m smartwatches were shipped worldwide, up from 300,000 in 2012. But it remains early days.
Yesterday at Baselworld, the annual watch fair currently underway in Switzerland, Philippe Léopold-Metzger, chief executive of Piaget, pooh-poohed the notion of an oncoming smartwatch explosion.
“We’re arriving at a stage where people are getting tired of technological machines, because I think they are invasive,” he said. Understandable comment, perhaps, from the boss of a company known for beautiful handcrafted timepieces made from the world’s most luxurious metals and minerals. But he also had a point. People’s tolerance for constantly harvesting data is about to be tested like never before.
It’s something the bright sparks at Jawbone, early pioneers of wearable tech and makers of the popular Jambox music streaming speakers, seem to have kept in mind when making UP24.
The follow-up to UP, the wristband, app and data service designed to track how you sleep, move and eat, now connects wirelessly to your iOS or Android device. That means continuous feedback and ‘in-the-moment’ notifications are now possible.
More data means more tailored insights into your behavior, and more scope for sending you helpful prompts based on that data: a message to your phone suggesting an early bedtime to meet your sleep target, or an alert to say you’ve almost reached your steps target for the day.
But the level of that feedback is also fully customisable – the point is you’re meant to forget you’re wearing the wristband, not be nagged into checking your phone for new data every two minutes.
The possibilities afforded by UP24 seem genuinely helpful and insightful. Even the new exterior – hypoallergenic, textured, ‘medical-grade’ rubber – means it’s easier to be worn day and night, without really noticing it’s on. Leaving space, as Mr Léopold-Metzger, would surely agree, for also investing in a proper wristwatch.
The UP24 is out now in three sizes (S, M, L) and two colours (Onyx and Persimmon), £125, jawbone.com
