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A smartwatch is a wearable computer in the form of a watch; modern smartwatches provide a local touchscreen interface for daily use, while an associated smartphone app provides management and telemetry, such as long-term biomonitoring. While early models could perform basic tasks, such as calculations, digital time telling, translations, and game-playing, smartwatches released since 2015 have more general functionality closer to smartphones, including mobile apps, a mobile operating system and WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity. Some smartwatches function as portable media players, with FM radio and playback of digital audio and video files via a Bluetooth headset. Some models, called watch phones (or phone watches), have mobile cellular functionality such as making telephone calls.

Software may include digital maps, schedulers and personal organizers, calculators, and various kinds of watch faces. The watch may communicate with external devices such as sensors, wireless headsets, or a head-up display. Like other computers, a smartwatch may collect information from internal or external sensors and it may control, or retrieve data from, other instruments or computers. It may support wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. For many purposes, a "watch computer" serves as a front end for a remote system such as a smartphone, communicating with the smartphone using various wireless technologies. Smartwatches are advancing, especially their design, battery capacity, and health-related applications.SpO2, workout, etc.

The first digital watch, which debuted in 1972, was the Pulsar manufactured by Hamilton Watch Company. "Pulsar" became a brand name which would later be acquired by Seiko in 1978. In 1982, a Pulsar watch (NL C01) was released which could store 24 digits, making it most likely the first watch with user-programmable memory, or "memorybank" watch.

With the introduction of personal computers in the 1980s, Seiko began to develop computers in the form of watches. The Data 2000 watch (1983) came with an external keyboard for data-entry. Data was synced from the keyboard to the watch via electro-magnetic coupling (wireless docking). The name comes from its ability to store 2000 characters.RS232C interface.Seiko Epson and was powered by a computer on a chip and was compatible with most of the popular PCs of that time, including Apple II, II+ and IIe, BBC Micro,Commodore 64,IBM PC, NEC 8201, Tandy Color Computer, Model 1000, 1200, 2000 and TRS-80 Model I, III, 4 and 4p. The RC-20 Wrist Computer was released in 1985, under the joint brand name "Seiko Epson".

During the 1980s, Casio began to market a successful line of "computer watches", in addition to its calculator watches. Most notable was the Casio data bank series. Novelty "game watches", such as the Nelsonic game watches, were also produced by Casio and other companies.

Although pager watches were predicted in the early 1980s,Motorola and Timex producing the Wrist Watch Pager, and AT&E Corp. and Seiko producing the MessageWatch.

The Timex Datalink wristwatch, was introduced in 1994. The early Timex Datalink Smartwatches realized a wireless data transfer mode to receive data from a PC. Appointments and contacts created with Microsoft Schedule+, the predecessor of MS Outlook, could be easily transmitted to the watch via a screen blinking light protocol.

In early 1990s HMT Limited, the Indian state-run watch company, launched their first batch of digital watches, named "Astra" which was sold in Indian market like hot cakes, even in black.

In 1998, Steve Mann invented, designed, and built the world"s first Linux wristwatch,Ruputer in Japan – a wristwatch computer with a 3.6 MHz processor. It was not very successful, since instead of a touchscreen it used a joystick-like device to input characters (much like high scores in arcade games), and the small screen with a resolution at 102x64 in 4 greyscales made it hard to read large amounts of text. Outside of Japan, this watch was distributed as the Matsucom onHand PC. Despite the rather low demand, the Matsucom onHand PC was distributed until 2006, making it a smartwatch with a rather long life cycle. Ruputer and onHand PC applications are fully compatible. This watch is sometimes considered the first smartwatch as it was the first one to offer graphics display (albeit monochrome) and many 3rd party applications (mostly homebrew).

In 1999, Samsung launched the world"s first watch phone, the SPH-WP10. It had a protruding antenna, a monochrome LCD screen, and a 90-minutes of talk time with an integrated speaker and microphone.

In June 2000, IBM displayed a prototype for the WatchPad, a wristwatch that ran Linux. The original version had only 6 hours of battery life, which was later extended to 12.MB of memory and ran Linux 2.2.Citizen Watch Co. to create the "WatchPad". The WatchPad 1.5 features a 320 × 240 QVGA monochrome touch sensitive display and runs Linux 2.4.Bluetooth, 8 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash memory.

In the same year, Microsoft announced the SPOT smartwatch and it began hitting stores in early 2004.Smart Personal Objects Technology, an initiative by Microsoft to personalize household electronics and other everyday gadgets. For instance, the company demonstrated coffee makers, weather stations, and alarm clocks featuring built-in SPOT technology.

Sony Ericsson teamed up with Fossils, and released the first watch, MBW-100, that connected to Bluetooth. This watch notified the user when receiving calls and text messages. Though the watch was not popular as it would only connect and work with Sony Ericsson phones.

In 2009, Hermen van den Burg, CEO of Smartwatch and Burg Wearables, launched Burg the first standalone smartphone watch with its own SIM card and not requiring to be tethered to a smartphone. Burg received the award for the Most Innovative Product at the Canton Fair in April 2009

Sony Ericsson launches the Sony Ericsson LiveView, a wearable watch device which is basically an external Bluetooth display for an Android Smartphone.

Pebble (watch) was an innovative smartwatch that raised the most money at the time on Kickstarter reaching $10.3 Million between 12 April – 18 May 2012. The watch has a 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD" manufactured by Sharp with a backlight, a vibrating motor, a magnetometer, ambient light sensors, and a three-axis accelerometer.Android or iOS device using both Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy) using Stonestreet One"s Bluetopia+MFi software stack.USB-cable that attaches magnetically to the watch to maintain water resistance capability.water-resistance to the list of features.waterproof rating of 5 atm, which means it can be submerged down to 40 metres (130 ft) and has been tested in both fresh and salt water, allowing one to shower, dive or swim while wearing the watch.

In 2013, the claim to first ever smartwatch to capture the full capability of a smartphone was laid by startup Omate with the TrueSmart. The TrueSmart originated from a Kickstarter campaign which raised over 1 million dollars, making it the 5th most successful Kickstarter to date. The TrueSmart made its public debut in early 2014.Wearable technology, such as Google Glass, was speculated to evolve into a business worth US$6 billion annually, and a July 2013 media report revealed that the majority of major consumer electronics manufacturers were undertaking work on a smartwatch device at the time of publication. The retail price of a smartwatch could be over US$300, plus data charges, while the minimum cost of smartphone-linked devices may be US$100.

As of July 2013, the list of companies that were engaged in smartwatch development activities consists of Acer, Apple, BlackBerry, Foxconn/Hon Hai, Google, LG, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, VESAG and Toshiba. Some notable omissions from this list include HP, HTC, Lenovo, and Nokia.Christopher Mims identified the following points in relation to the future of smartwatches:

Insufficient battery life is an ongoing problem for smartwatch developers, as the battery life of devices at the time of publication was three to four days and this is likely to be reduced if further functions are added.

The success level of smartwatches is unpredictable, as they may follow a similar trajectory to netbooks, or they may fulfill aims akin to those of Google Glass, another wearable electronic product.

Acer"s S.T. Liew stated in an interview with gadget website Pocket-Lint, "... I think every consumer company should be looking at wearable. Wearable isn’t new … it just hasn’t exploded in the way that it should. But the opportunity’s for billions of dollars" worth of industry."

As of 4 September 2013, three new smartwatches had been launched: the Samsung Galaxy Gear, Sony SmartWatch 2,Qualcomm Toq.Dallas, Texas, completed its crowd-funding process on Kickstarter for its HOT Watch smartwatch in September 2013. This device enables users to leave their handsets in their pockets, since it has a speaker for phone calls in both quiet and noisy environments.

In April 2014, the Samsung Gear 2 was released among the few smartwatches to be equipped with a digital camera. It has a resolution of two megapixels and can record video in 720p.

At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, a large number of new smartwatches were released from various companies such as Razer Inc,Archos,Google I/O on 25 June 2014, the Android Wear platform was introduced and the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live were released. The Wear-based Moto 360 was announced by Motorola in 2014.Wearable Technology Show made its debut in London and was host to several smartwatch companies exhibiting their newest models.

The launch of Samsung"s Gear S smartwatch was covered by the media in late August 2014. The model features a curved Super AMOLED display and a built-in 3G modem, with technology writer Darrell Etherington stating on the Sony Mobile announced the third generation of its smartwatch series, the Sony Smartwatch 3 powered by Android Wear.e-paper watch was announced.

On 9 September 2014, Apple Inc. announced its first smartwatch, called Apple Watch, to be released in early 2015.Microsoft announced the Microsoft Band, a smart fitness tracker and the company"s first venture into wrist-worn devices since SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) a decade earlier. The Microsoft Band was released at $199 the following day, on 30 October 2014.

At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, Razer released the Nabu Watch, a dual-screen smartwatch: integrates an always-on illuminated backlit display, that takes care of some pretty standard features as date and time, and a second OLED screen, which is activated by raising your wrist, allows access to extra smart features.TAG Heuer released TAG Heuer Connected, a smartwatch powered by Android Wear.

On 31 August 2016, Samsung unveiled the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch, with higher specifications. There are at least two models: the Samsung Gear S3 Classic and the LTE version Samsung Gear S3 Frontier.

The top smartwatches that debuted at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show included the Casio WSD-F20, Misfit Wearables Vapor and the Garmin Fenix 5 series.Apple Watch Series 3 model which offers built in LTE cellular connectivity allowing phone calls, messaging and data without relying on a nearby smartphone connection.

In its September 2018 keynote, Apple introduced a redesigned Apple Watch Series 4. It featured a larger display with smaller bezels, as well as an EKG feature which is built to detect abnormal heart function.

In Qualcomm"s September 2018 presentation, it unveiled its Snapdragon 3100 chip. It is a successor to the Wear 2100, and it includes greater power efficiency, and a separate low power core that can run basic watch functions as well as slightly more advanced functions, such as step tracking.

In 2020, the United States Food and Drug Administration granted marketing approval for an Apple Watch app called NightWare. The app aims to improve sleep for people suffering from PTSD-related nightmares, by vibrating when it detects a nightmare in progress based on monitoring heart rate and body movement.

Smartwatches have risen in popularity during the 2010s. Today, they are often used as fitness trackers, smartphone entertainment or communication "companions".Fitbit, Amazfit, Huawei, Fossil and Garmin.

Many smartwatch smartphone models manufactured in the 2010s are completely functional as standalone products. Some are used in sports, the GPS tracking unit being used to record historical data. For example, after a workout, data can be uploaded onto a computer or online to create a log of activities for analysis or sharing. Some watches can provide full GPS support, displaying maps and current coordinates, recording tracks, and bookmarking locations. With Apple, Sony, Samsung, and Motorola introducing smartwatch models, 15 percent of tech consumersadvanced hypertargeting modules were introduced to the devices; companies aim to use advertisements tailored for smartwatches.

"Sport watch" functionality often includes activity tracker, or fitness tracker, features as included on GPS watches made for training, diving, and outdoor sports. Functions may include training programs (such as intervals), lap times, speed display, GPS tracking unit, route tracking, dive computer, heart rate monitor compatibility, Cadence sensor compatibility, and compatibility with sport transitions (as in triathlons). Other watches can cooperate with an app in a smartphone to carry out their functions. They are paired usually by Bluetooth with a smartphone. Some of these only work with a phone that runs the same mobile operating system; others use a unique watch OS, or otherwise are able to work with most smartphones. Paired, the watch may function as a remote to the phone. This allows the watch to display data such as calls, SMS messages, emails, calendar invitations, and any data that may be made available by relevant phone apps. Some fitness-tracker watches give users reports on the distance walked, hours slept, and so on.

From about 2015 several manufacturers released smartwatches with LTE support (watch smartphones or autonomous vs. connected watches), enabling direct connection to 3G/4G mobile networks for voice and SMS use, without the need to carry a paired smartphone.

Tests by UK consumer organisation Which? found by detailed testing that ultra-cheap smartwatches and fitness trackers sold online had serious security flaws including excessive data collection, data not stored securely, no way to opt out of data collection, and no security lock function to lock out thieves or other unauthorised users. Typically a watch app might request permission to collect and store "personally identifiable information and personal property information", such as information on passport, transactions, bank balances, and ID cards; the app is unusable if permission is denied. The user cannot know if information is being stored securely, and it cannot be deleted. There is no control over whether the supplier views it or sells it on, for whatever purpose. In many cases data collected is not encrypted when transmitted to the supplier.

Which? did not specifically test functionality of ultra-cheap watches, but while checking security they noticed that some displayed heart rate, blood oxygen measurements, and counted steps while not being worn or moved; they said that this "suggests they are at best inaccurate and at worst useless".

InfiniTime is the default firmware for the PineTime smartwatch, produced by Pine64. It is a community project based on FreeRTOS, as well as being free software licensed under the GNU General Public License.

As of January 2022, Infinitime version 1.8"s additional features include: secure Bluetooth pairing, customisable watch faces, a flashlight, basic paint program, stopwatch, alarm clock, countdown timer, step counter, heart rate monitor, a one-player pong clone, a numerical puzzle game and a metronome. Features are under ongoing development, with firmware updates available via Github.

HarmonyOS is an operating system developed by Huawei, intended for the various "smart" devices they manufacture. Starting in 2021, it started seeing use in Huawei Watches, replacing its predecessor, LiteOS.

Tizen is a Linux-based operating system for various platforms including smartwatches. Tizen is a project within the Linux Foundation and is governed by a Technical Steering Group (TSG) composed of Samsung and Intel among others. Samsung released the Samsung Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, Samsung Gear S, Samsung Gear S2 and Samsung Gear S3 running Tizen.

In China, since around 2015, smartwatches have become widely used by schoolchildren.calls, and display time, and sometimes air temperature. They cost around US$100 to $200.

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 is the best smartwatch to pair with an Android phone—whether Samsung made that phone or not. The Watch5 runs the Android-based Wear OS, which means you get access to the Play Store and Google services, along with Samsung’s familiar One UI interface. The Galaxy Watch5 has ample fitness sensors, as well as automatic workout detection and tracking capabilities. However, the setup process can be clunky on non-Samsung phones, and battery life on the smaller 40 mm model is barely acceptable; you should get the 44 mm unless you need a smaller, more comfortable smartwatch. If you need a smaller watch, you might consider the 41 mm Pixel Watch instead.

The Galaxy Watch5 looks like a traditional watch with a simple aluminum case that surrounds a round OLED touchscreen under scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass. The screen looks crisp with a 450×450 resolution for the 44 mm and 396×396 for the 40 mm, and the brightness level is high enough to make it completely readable outdoors. The bezel around the screen can act as a touch scroll wheel for zipping through long lists, replacing the physical rotating bezel on older Samsung watches. The 40 mm Watch5 is priced at $250, which is $100 less than the Pixel Watch, and the 44 mm is just a little more expensive at $280. If you want LTE in addition to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, that adds another $40 to the price.

Nothing rattles when the Galaxy Watch5’s powerful vibration motor goes off to alert you to calls and notifications, and the buttons are tight and tactile. Vibration is not as powerful or precise as the Apple Watch or Pixel Watch, but it’s much better than Fossil’s.

The watch comes with a good quality (but boring) black silicone band when purchased from most retailers, but buying directly from Samsung will let you customize the watch with one of its other band options. The Watch5 has standard lugs protruding from the curved aluminum body. Samsung’s accessories are molded to the watch’s body to look streamlined, but if that’s not important, you have a whole world of fancy watch bands from which to choose.

Wear OS used to look the same on every watch, but Google is now allowing companies to modify it much like Android phone software. Wear OS on the Watch5 has Samsung’s One UI interface, so you’ll be right at home if you have or have had a Samsung phone recently. Even if you haven’t, you only have to learn a few navigation gestures to get started. One UI for Wear OS keeps many of the things we liked from Samsung’s Tizen-based software, such as bundled notifications like you’d see on your phone and quicker access to apps. This is useful if you get a lot of messages and want to be able to triage them on your wrist.

Because this is the latest version of Wear OS, it includes Google features like turn-by-turn in Maps, offline downloads in YouTube Music, Google Assistant, and a large number of watch faces in the Play Store. The Watch5 will also get an unprecedented four years of update support, whereas most Android smartwatches are lucky to see a year or two of timely patches.

The Galaxy Watch5 uses the smartwatch-optimized Samsung Exynos W920 chip, the same chip inside last year’s Watch4. But despite the year-old hardware, the Galaxy Watch5 wakes up promptly, and the UI scrolls smoothly. The smaller 40 mm Watch5 can last a day on a charge with the default settings, but enabling the more power-hungry always-on display could give you range anxiety. The 44 mm watch has a larger battery, so it can last all day regardless of settings, and two days isn’t out of the question. This is the version to get unless you need a more compact wearable.

Both watches support fast charging with Samsung’s new included cable, which connects to a PC or wall outlet via USB-C, a welcome upgrade over the older USB-A plugs on the Watch4 and earlier versions. Samsung says the Watch5 can get about half a charge in 30 minutes via this new charger, which matches our testing. Samsung’s magnetic charging puck is also foolproof to connect.

Most Wear OS watches have poor fitness tracking and workout detection, but the Watch5 builds in Samsung’s excellent health features, including accurate workout detection and blood oxygen monitoring. It even rivals the features on fitness-oriented devices such as Fitbit trackers—though we like Fitbit’s app much more. The Watch5 tracks steps and heart rate, of course, but it also automatically logs workouts and sleep.

Samsung’s included watch faces are also designed very well, and many of them integrate health data as well as the Apple Watch does. It can identify more than two dozen activities, including running, swimming (the watch is water resistant to 50 meters), and using an elliptical. It also has built-in GPS for tracking runs without your phone.

While the Galaxy Watch5 has plenty of health sensors, you might not be able to use all of them. The built-in ECG sensor only works if you have the watch paired with a Samsung phone. Likewise, non-Samsung phones can’t access the camera remote or blood pressure tracking. The skin temperature sensor works with all devices, or rather, it will when Samsung enables it. As of late 2022, Samsung has yet to enable it.

Samsung has also dropped the rotating bezel from the Galaxy Watch lineup this year. We liked this navigation method in Tizen, which used numerous radial UI elements, but most of that is gone in Wear OS. The touch bezel is enabled by default on the Watch5, but it’s too finicky to bother using. You’ll overshoot your target more often than not, at which point swiping is easier.

The 40 mm watch doesn’t get good enough battery life, but it’s far more comfortable than the 44 mm version. The larger of the two won’t hug smaller wrists as well, making it easy to get snagged on clothing during the day or blankets if you’re wearing it at night for sleep tracking.

Smartwatches are still a relatively new electronics category, but these devices are poised to hit the mainstream. This year we saw major players such as LG and Motorola throw their smartwatches in the ring, along with Samsung, Sony, and a host of smaller companies like Pebble and Martian. And Apple finally confirmed its entry, the innovative Apple Watch, expected to arrive early in 2015.

We"ve just completed lab tests on six of the newest smartwatches to hit the market. Three run on the very promising Android Wear operating system, which Google created specifically for wearable devices—the LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, and Motorola Moto 360. We also tested several basic models: the Martian Notifier, Cookoo 2, and MetaWatch M1. And we included reviews of nine smartwatches that we tested previously; all are still available, and we updated their prices. Find out what we liked and didn"t like about the six newly tested models.

What sets a smartwatch apart from a conventional digital watch, or, for that matter, a wearable activity tracker? The lines are blurring, at least between the last two.

Basically, smartwatches are wearable-technology devices that maintain a relatively persistent wireless connection to your mobile device—usually a smart phone—and can receive notifications of incoming calls, texts, instant messages, social-network updates, and more, from that device. Some can also let you accept and conduct phone calls right on the watch. And even newer models (the Samsung Gear S, for one) can act as smart phones all on their own, without needing a paired phone nearby.

Smartwatches, like smart phones, can also run apps, via your smart phone or right on the watch. These include health and fitness apps (thus the comparison with activity trackers), apps that control functions such as music and the camera on your phone, navigation apps, and more. Because most smartwatches have open software platforms (at least so far), developers are coming up with new and innovative apps that can increase the functionality of the devices.

All of the tested smartwatches pairs via Bluetooth with iOS and/or Android mobile devices to receive notifications of incoming calls and messages and other information from the mobile device. Each model is Android-compatible, and the Martian, Cookoo, and MetaWatch models also have iOS compatibility.

All but the Martian Notifier claim some degree of water resistance: the LG, Samsung, and Motorola models can survive underwater up to 1 meter for 30 minutes, the Cookoo2 up to 100 meters, and the MetaWatch up to 3ATM, which is equivalent to 30 meters. Only the Martian and Motorola models claim to have scratch-resistant screens (the Martian has an anti-scratch acrylic crystal and the Moto 3 uses Gorilla Glass 3).

None of the newly tested models" time displays time out when the watches are inactive, which we"ve seen happen on previously tested smartwatches. The time displays of the LG, Samsung, and Motorola models have a setting to keep them always on, though they dim after a little while. The Martian Notifier and Cookoo2 have traditional analog watch faces.

Our testers subjectively evaluated each model for ease of pairing, ease of interaction, and readability of the display in bright sunlight. All were judged to have about the same ease of pairing; each also requires an app to be downloaded to the mobile device.

The LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, and Motorola Moto 360—the Android Wear models—have intuitive color touchscreen interfaces and were judged easiest to interact with. The Martian Notifier, Cookoo 2, and MetaWatch M1, which have push-button navigation, were determined to be the most difficult to use. In particular, the Cookoo 2"s buttons were very hard to press.

As for screen readability, the Notifier and Cookoo 2 were judged best for reading the time in bright sunlight, but worst for reading text. The other watches were judged to have about the same readability of both time and text in bright sunlight.

We evaluated the watches" claimed water resistance, with one exception, the Cookoo 2: It claimed water resistance to 100 meters or 300 feet, but we can test only to 220 feet. Each of the other models met its water-resistance claims, and the Cookoo 2 met its water-resistance claim to the maximum depth to which we could test.

And finally, we tested "scratch hardness"—the resistance of the watch"s screen to scratching. All were rated as very good or excellent, except the Martian Notifier, which claimed an "anti-scratch acrylic crystal" yet was rated as poor.

Check the smartwatch comparison to see what we liked and didn"t like about each model. And read about Android Wear, Google"s OS for wearable tech devices.

If you like traditional analog watches and want just a few smart features, the Cookoo 2 might be more appealing than its more full-featured rectangular competitors. Behind its hands is a monochrome display that delivers basic notifications: incoming calls (with Caller ID), missed calls, texts, e-mail, social media alerts (for WhatsApp, Line, QQ, WeChat, Skype, Facebook, Twitter), and calendar alerts. Just bear in mind that it"s a very basic smartwatch, with little configurability.

The LG G Watch was the first one we tried that uses Google"s Android Wear OS (the Moto 360 and Samsung Gear Live do as well). It includes Google Now, the company"s Siri-like "intelligent personal assistant." Say "OK Google," and you can do Google searches, compose texts, and make requests of your watch ("Show me my steps" or "Set an alarm"). Google Now also offers up a stream of "cards" on the watch"s face, with information it determines is relevant to you. If, for example, the card tells you how many minutes it would take you to get home from your current location, you can click on the card and get specific traffic and navigation information.

Works with: Android smart phones using version 2.3.3 or later, Android tablets using version 2.3.3 or later; iPhone 6, 6+, 5S, 5C, 5, 4S, iPod touch (5th generation) iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad (3rd generation)

The Martian Notifier combines a traditional analog watch with a small, narrow OLED screen at the bottom of the watch"s face, on which alerts appear—just tap the screen to dismiss them. You can also customize vibrations for different kinds of alerts. The Notifier is compatible with a wide range of apps; check Martian"s website for a list.

The MetaWatch M1, like the Cookoo 2 and Martian Notifier, is a basic smartwatch. It shows alerts for texts, e-mails, social media updates, calendar appointments, weather, and Caller ID, and can control your phone"s music app. The notifications are configurable in terms of what you are alerted to and how: whether via a vibration or on the watch"s display. Also built in are a timer, a stopwatch, and an alarm

We tested the Stainless Silver model, but the stylish-looking M1 comes in a variety of materials, including rubber, leather, and stainless steel. Other models are priced lower and higher, ranging from $250 to $450. At 5.8 ounces, the steel model is also heavier than rubber or leather models.

The Moto 360 was the first round smartwatch we got our hands (or wrists) on, and the design was a standout, for us. It looks like a traditional watch and fits more comfortably than rectangular smartwatches, but still packs the full functionality of an advanced smartwatch. Like the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, it runs the Android Wear OS, allowing voice commands and pushing relevant information to the wearer.

This smartwatch comes with a stainless steel case and metal or leather straps. We tested the black body with black leather straps; prices for other styles range from $250 to $350. [corrected 1/27/15]

The Samsung Gear Live is the first of the company"s smartwatches to be compatible with any Android phone running Android 4.3 or higher; other Gear models can be paired only with specific Samsung phones. Like the LG G Watch and Moto 360, it runs the Android Wear OS, allowing voice commands and pushing relevant information to the wearer. Compared with the LG G Watch, we prefer the style and fit of the Gear Live. The watch body is slightly curved, which made it more comfortable. The Gear Live also has a heart-rate monitor, which the G Watch lacks.

• Has a tiny, monochrome, button-based (non-touchscreen) interface that (along with the Martian Notifier and MetaWatch M1 interfaces) was judged the least easy to interact with

• Features include an accelerometer; a built-in microphone, which allows for voice control of the mobile device from the watch; a gyroscope, which allows for things like orientation sensing

• Has a tiny, monochrome, button-based (non-touchscreen) interface that (along with the Cookoo2 and MetaWatch M1 interfaces) was judged the least easy to interact with

• Has a less intuitive, button-based (non-touchscreen), monochrome interface that (along with the Martian Notifier and CooKoo2 interfaces) was judged the least easy to interact with

• Features a built-in microphone and voice control of the mobile device from the watch, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a heart sensor that uses optical sensors to read your pulse

The Martian Passport wants to give you the best of both watch worlds, by offering a mechanical, analog watch face and a small LCD. If you prefer a traditional-looking watch and want the "smart" component to be unobtrusive, this model may work for you. It comes in three varieties, all with silver bezels: a white face with a black or white band or a black face with a black band.

The Passport is versatile in that it works with Android and iOS mobile devices. And it features the ability to make phone calls with its built-in microphone and speaker. You can use voice commands (the Passport leverages your phone"s voice recognition system; such as Apple"s Siri for iOS devices or Google Now for Android) to control the mobile device from the watch. And because of the analog watch face, you can easily see the time in bright sunlight.

Features that aren"t so versatile: The Passport"s monochrome OLED display is very small, and it"s not a touch screen. You use buttons to navigate, so it"s not as intuitive to use as the watches with touch-screen displays.And in bright sunlight, we judged the OLED display to have the worst readability in this tested batch.

The Pebble Steel is a stylish new version of the Pebble Watch, which we reviewed previously. But as its name states, the Steel is made of stainless steel and comes in either a steel or black finish. It ships from GetPebble.com with either a a leather or metal watchband (an extra band is $20).

Our testers judged the Steel"s display readability in bright sunlight to be the best in this batch.But like the original Pebble, it"s a basic device, with a small monochrome non-touch-screen interface that you navigate using buttons. This may be enough functionality for many people—it"s a personal choice.

Samsung"s three second-generation smartwatches arrived with real improvements and refinements. At $300, the Gear 2 is the most sophisticated—and expensive—of the trio. The Gear 2 Neo is basically a less expensive version of the Gear 2: It has similar functionality, but it"s housed in a plastic body instead of metal and has no built-in camera. And the slimmer Gear Fit is a hybrid smartwatch and activity tracker.

Like the other Gears, the Gear 2 works only with some Samsung devices. The company has been increasing the number of compatible devices, but check before you buy. Also, these three Gear watches run on the Tizen OS, not on Android. Apps come from the Samsung app market.

The Gear 2 has a metal body and comes a variety of color combos, including all black, a rose-gold-color body with a brown strap, or an orange body and strap, You can change out the strap with any aftermarket strap.

Like the other two new Gear watches, the Gear 2 has an intuitive and vivid color touch-screen interface. It also has an abundance of features: You can make phone calls with its built-in microphone and speaker, and use voice commands to the watch to control your paired mobile device.

The Gear 2 also includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a heart-rate sensor. It also can control a TV or set-top box remotely using a built-in IR blaster, and it has the ability to function as a stand-alone music player. And its built-in camera—handily built into the watch itself rather than on the band, like the original Galaxy Gear—takes 2-megapixel stills and 720p video.

Of the three second-generation Samsung smartwatches, the Gear Fit is the most creative and stylish departure from the original Samsung Galaxy Gear. It"s just as much an activity monitor as it is a smartwatch, and it has a markedly new look—slim, sleek, and light. It also has an unconventional sideways display that"s unlike any of the other tested watches; it takes a bit of wrist-twisting to view it. (You can opt to view your display vertically, but you"ll be reading a lot of truncated words that way.)

Like the other Gears, the Gear Fit works only with some Samsung devices. The company has been increasing the number of compatible devices, but check before you buy. Also, these three Gear watches run on the Tizen OS, not on Android. Apps come from the Samsung app market.

Also like the other two new Gear watches, the Gear 2 has an intuitive and vivid color touch-screen interface. It also includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a heart sensor, for tracking your physical activities.

The Pebble Watch was one of the first to market (check our first-look Pebble review). Although it"s more basic than the offerings from Samsung, Sony, and Qualcomm, it"s pretty useful, channeling e-mails, texts, and other notifications from your smart phone or tablet.

The Pebble also runs a wide variety of apps from third-party developers, including fitness apps for bikers, runners, and golfers. In fact, Pebble very recently announced its own App Store, which is reachable through the Pebble phone app. The company says that more than 1,000 apps are available currently.

The Pebble comes in five colors. There"s also a new, stylish-looking version of the smartwatch shipping soon, the Pebble Steel ($200), that comes in stainless steel or black matte finishes.

The Pebble works with Android and iOS mobile devices. Its so-called "e-paper" monochrome display has excellent readability in bright light. And there"s a very active user community at the company"s online forums. We had fun turning on its backlight with a flick of the wrist, and the magnetic charger is easy to use.

The Pebble doesn"t have NFC, and you have to find the smartwatch app in the appropriate app market for your smart device, download it, and install it. And it has a button-based (non-touch screen), small monochrome interface.

The SmartWatch 2 is a streamlined version of Sony"s first smartwatch (which went on sale in 2013) with a number of new features. The SmartWatch 2 has a thin bezel; it"s almost all screen, which gives it a modern, sleek look. You choose from one of two strap designs, black plastic or black stainless steel, or you can swap those out for a leather strap in one of seven colors ($20 each). We tested the model with the plastic strap, which is light and flexible and can fit close to your wrist.

The Sony SmartWatch 2 uses Android apps only. Sony has an open app platform, so third-party developers contribute apps too. There is a very wide selection of available apps, and many are free.

The attractive color touch-screen interface is intuitive to use. The OLED color display had very good readability in bright sunlight, and the touch-screen interface is intuitive. It"s one of the lighter watches, at 1.6 ounces.

Setup is more time-consuming with this smartwatch than with others, as you need to download extension apps to your mobile device for every function you want, including messaging and phone call notifications. It"s compatible only with Android (4.0 and later) mobile devices, so forget about it if you own an iPhone.

This is a good-looking and versatile smartwatch. We love the easy NFC pairing. But it"s a pain to have to download additional extension apps for basic features or functions, which you don"t have to do on most other

We looked at two versions of the MetaWatch. The Frame is a little sleeker looking and slightly heavier than the Strata (below). The Frame comes in black or white; there isn"t much difference otherwise.

Basic features are preloaded, and you use apps that are on your phone already for notifications, as you do with the Toq. Some third-party apps are also available. The Frame has no touch screen, so all your menu navigation is done by button presses. It"s not particularly intuitive.

To charge the watch, you have to clip on the charger and align it with contacts that you can"t see when you"re clipping. Why make it so complicated? There"s no NFC for easy pairing, and you have to find the smartwatch app in the app market, download it, and install it on your mobile device. The Frame"s display readability in bright sunlight was judged to be only good. It"s relatively heavy, at 2.7 ounces (only the Toq is heavier).

The Strata is a little heavier looking than the Frame (although it weighs less, at 2.1 ounces). It comes with a choice of five strap colors. Deciding between the Strata and the Frame is more a style decision than anything, as pretty much everything else is the same.

Basic features are preloaded, and you use apps that are on your phone already for notifications, as with the Toq. Some third-party apps are also available. The Strata has no touch screen, so all your menu navigation is done by button presses. It"s not particularly intuitive.

As with the Frame, you have to clip on the charger and align it with contacts that you can"t see when you"re clipping. There"s no NFC for easy pairing, and you have to find the smartwatch app in the app market, download it, and install it on your mobile device. The Strata"s display readability in bright sunlight was judged to be only good.

Always on Display now brighter with more colors. Thousands of watch faces to personalize your look and always see the time. Hundreds of apps from assistant to fitness, payments, music, social, news, games, stop watches, and more. With a 3 ATM design and charging in about half an hour, it’s perfect for all your activities.

Automatically tracks activity goals, steps, sleep, heart rate, cardio level, SPO2 (blood oxygen), and more. Activity modes with GPS keep you on track with your distance and path. Advanced sensors provide the data to power all your health and fitness apps.

Stay connected with notifications for calls, texts, apps and automatic time, time zone and calendar syncing. Never miss a call - answer and make calls directly on your watch when your phone is out of reach. Optimize your battery life with a newly simplified Smart Battery Modes.

24 Hr + multi day Extended Mode Battery Life **Varies based on usage and after updates install**. USB data cable with magnetic dock snaps to split rings on watch caseback and spins 360 degrees for ease of use. Approximately 30 minutes to reach an 80% charge.

Established in 2010, Topfoison has devoted itself to the manufacturing and development of high-quality products for the Wearable device, Smart Watch, VR, Medical device, Industrial LCD display including Color LCD modules/OLED/LCD display/Round lcd screen/Round AMOLED/ Square transflective lcd screen/ IPS full wide display/ 1080p fhd AMOLED and 2K 1440p lcd. Topfoison focus on1.22-7.0 inch small size displays, all the products produced in our company enjoys the most advanced production craft and technology as well as the strictly ISO quality management system.

The wearable tech market is growing up like crazy. There are many kinds of wearables coming into the market from, fitness bands to smartwatches and more.

In this article, I am going to introduce some open source smartwatches which we can completely customize from the hardware to the software, that too compatible with our favorite language, Arduino!

The PineTime is a free and open source smartwatch capable of running custom-built open operating systems. Some of the notable features include a heart rate monitor, a week-long battery as well as a capacitive touch IPS display that is legible in direct sunlight. It is a fully community-driven side-project, which means that it will ultimately be up to the developers and end-users to determine when they deem the PineTime ready to ship.

Watchy is an open source smartwatch powered by ESP32 with a 1.54-inch e-paper screen. It is usable right out of the box, however, both the hardware and software are completely customizable. The watchy PCB acts as the body and has slots to attach a watch strap.

E-Paper display with 200×200 pixel resolution. Glare-free visibility under bright sunlight, near 180-degree view angle, and ultra low power consumption.

The Open-SmartWatch is an open source smartwatch project created by @pauls_3d_things/p3dt.net. It consists of hardware modules, 3D printable cases, and a custom operating system to build smartwatches with the goal that they can be assembled, repaired, and modified by everyone.

The PCB (KiCAD), Case design files (Blender), and Operating System (C++/Arduino/PlatformIO) are all created with open source software and are hosted on

This is project is entirely open source. You can either build it from scratch or choose from one of the manufacturers below. Everything is still the very beginning of this project, and fully assembled watches will be available soon! Follow this project on instagram.com/pauls_3d_things/ to stay up to date and get notified once new options are available!

CulBox is an Open Source smartwatch for Arduino with built-in Bluetooth and a bunch of Hi-Tech sensors and tons of features for Arduino Designed by Senior Electron LLC in the United States of America

OpenHAK open source smartwatch project intends to allow users to discover activity tracking and how it works. By creating an open platform that counts your steps, and measures your heart rate, users can tweak, change, modify, and create all possible data streams.

BLE: Using the Simblee 32bit BLE/MCU module allows for awesome features, and is fully Arduino compatible. It enables long battery life, and easy use, including wireless programming. Yes, we know it is EOL…

PPG: Maxim MAX30101 offers high sensitivity, adjustable LED output power, and multiple wavelengths. Designed specifically for wearables, and can capture PPG, and SpO2

Breakout: In addition to 3V, GND, and the Simblee Reset pin, 7 unused pins on the Simblee are broken out including TX and RX for wired firmware updates and wired Serial communication.

Bangle.js 2 is the second generation of the original Bangle.js. With a 4-week battery life, an always-on, sunlight-readable screen, total flexibility, and total control over your data.

You can download new apps from the internet or use JavaScript to create your own. You can upload apps or write code to run on your watch wirelessly using just a web browser! In addition to Bluetooth Low Energy, GPS, a heart rate monitor, an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a pressure sensor, and more.

As makers, we always want to make our own gadgets so if you are also interested like me to make a smartwatch or any wearable device read this article, here I’m discussing some products which will help us make our dream come true. When you make one don’t forget to make it as an open source