HP recently unveiled its designer smartwatch, where the company had been partnered with Glit, a luxury shopping company to build and create an elegant, contemporary luxury smartwatch without looking too boxy.
Similar to the coming Moto 360 and also the leaked OnePlus OneWatch, it is designed with a round watch face. But, the HP watch is by fashion designer Michael Bastian and features a water resistance of 44m, stainless steel build, and interchangeable watch bands in sleek black rubber, perforated brown leather, and olive green nylon.
Drawn renders by Michael Bastian
The announcement of the timepiece did not exactly reveal a lot of information about the specs, nor a complete picture of how the watch actually looks like. However, Gilt posted an official statement on their website showing off what the wearable device can do. Like any other smartwatch in the market today, it has the ability to display information about the time, weather, stocks and sports results. In addition, there are also push notifications, calendar reminders, and music playback control all from your wrist. Probably the most important feature of a smartwatch is battery life and HP claims that the device carries a power reserve of up to seven days.
One feature that separates the HP luxury smartwatch with others is the fact that the company boldly omits the touchscreen capability. While other companies like Samsung, LG, and Sony build their wearables with a touchscreen, HP expects you to interact with the watch using buttons on the side of the watch. You know, like a regular watch…or a beefed up, rounded version of a Pebble Steel. That said, we are not sure if the watch will feature a full colour display or if it will be monochrome.
To clear things up, the watch is not running on the new Android Wear platform. Instead, it runs on a proprietary software that will work with iOS and Android. Gilt claims that the luxury smartwatch will be more than just a notifier or a timepiece that pings you with notifications.
Given that the most smartwatches are only compatible with Android devices, it wouldn’t be surprising if iOS users show more interest in the luxury smartwatch by HP. After all, it will be the closest thing to Pebble in terms of iOS compatibility.
The HP device is currently being referred to as the Michael Bastian smartwatch and will be launched around the end of the year.
