Latest Review
Smartwatches are still a young concept, gathering a fair bit of buzz when a new or updated model is released. For people who have not or do not wear a watch, adding a smartwatch is a matter of deciding whether or not it has a place in your life. Otherwise, you just continue bare-wristed. For those who do wear a watch the options are to either replace the watch worn with a smartwatch, wear two watches (I’m sure there is some percent of this group that would) or just stick with what you have and skip the smartwatch altogether.Well, there is another subset of those of us who love our little mechanical machines and don’t want to give them up, but still would like the ability to have some basic smartwatch features, like notifications and step tracking, while we continue to use our own mechanical watch. The Chronos Smart Watch Disc is a device that promises to make this possible.
The Chronos Smart Watch Disc is not a replacement for your current watch but an add-on to it. No it’s not a bangle that attaches to the strap in anyway, rather it connects right to your watch. The back of the watch to be exact. The disc is 33mm in diameter and 3mm thick and is designed to attach to your watch with a “non-residue micro-suction adhesive backing”. Meaning it should attach without any goop being left behind. The casing is made of stainless steel and it is water resistant with an IP67 rating (complete dust resistance; protected from water submersion up to 1 meter for 30 minutes). The device uses low energy Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with your iOS or Android device and is said to last up to 36 hours per charge, using wireless charging to replenish the battery. Inside the disc is also an accelerometer, a haptic vibration engine with 8 different vibration patterns, and 7 different LED colors.
So what does the Chronos Smart Watch Disc do? Quite a fair bit, actually. The accompanying app will let you tailor notifications that are pushed to the device, using the haptic engine and LED alerts to notify you of their arrival. With the accelerometer the disc will also do fitness tracking letting you sync that data with various apps. Interestingly there are also gesture controls that let you control aspects like silencing calls, navigating music and controlling some other phone functions.
Thus far the Chronos Smart Watch Disc appears to be the best option yet available for people who love their watches but would like to have a way to add a bit smartwatch elements. The current price is $99 USD for one Chronos, which beats out most smartwatches by a fair bit. You can also buy a watch with one, either from Elliot Havok for $169 or from the successful Kickstarter brand Redux & Co., on one of their COURG watches for $389. Prices are set to go up after pre-order (no date specified). You can pre-order the Chronos now (no Kickstarter link this time) right from their website. So, is this the smartest way to get smart? Let us know what you think?!
