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2015 will definitely be the year of connected watches. All brands are trying to develop or adapt to their collections dedicated products with new that will compete with the Apple watch. A few brands decided to launch their product just before Baselworld 2015, here is LuxuryActivist recap of what you should know before the fair.

Frederic Constant and Alpina Horological Smartwatch

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Frederic Constant and its sister brand Alpina decided to stay classy, without a digital screen and kept the aesthetic of traditional watchmaking. First advantage of this choice, it improves the autonomy with 2 years announced for the battery life. Second advantage, if the electronic system becomes obsolete, the watch can still be worn. For the technology part of this watch, they partnered with Silicon Valley company Motion X that produced the chip and with Californian Firm Fullpower for the software. An open platform called  MotionX-365® Horological Smartwatch has been created by Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT) and can now be used by many watch brands. These watches will be on sale from late May. The beginning price will be around 1000 Swiss francs, and around 2000 Swiss francs for the high end models.

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 Mondaine Helvetica No 1 Horological Smartwatch

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First external client of  the open plateform MotionX-365® Horological Smartwatch, Mondaine presented it’s first smartwatch inspired by Swiss railroad (SBB CFF) clocks. It can track your activity and sleeping patterns, allowing the wearer to set up sleep cycle alarms and get fit with an adaptive coach. It will be released in autumn this year at a price estimated under 1000 Swiss francs.

 Swatch Touch Zero One

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Swatch Touch Zero One has been created with focus to beach volley activities. It has a large tactile curved touchscreen that can count power hits, power claps, steps, activity time, calories burned per game, progress per month…etc. All the data are sent to your smartphone via the Touch Zero One app that make the aggregation and analysis.  Like Runkeeper or Runtastic for Runners, this device is a motivation system for volleyball players. Battery life is announced for several months and you can charge it. If you are waiting to control your smartphone via this watch, this is not the good choice. Expected price is under 200 Swiss francs.

Montblanc e-Strap

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Here is an exception, we are talking about a connected strap that can be adapted on any case. This could be a good compromise if you don’t want to change your watches but would like to add “connected features” to your actual watch collection. Montblanc’s e-Strap has a small monochrome OLED screen which connects via Bluetooth to your phone and display notifications when you receive calls or text messages (7 functionalities linked to smartphones announced). It will be officially launched in June 2015.

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LG Watch Urbane LTE

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LG announced their first really elegant  smartwatch with gold or steel finished cases. This is a turning point because they choose to adapt the design of their high technological products to the classic watchmaking codes. The plastic OLED screen has a 320 x 320 pixel resolution. The chip is running on Android wear. The CPU, a  1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400, has a storage capacity of 4GB and RAM of 512 MB. It includes heart rate sensor, gyroscope, accelerator and a compass. Pricing and availability will be announced this month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

H. Moser & Cie

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This is actually the only picture released by the independent Manufacture H.Moser & Cie. It promises a revolutionary creation with a clean interface and a long battery life explained CEO Edouard Meylan. “The H. Moser & Cie. smart watch stays true to the original character of our products, and it is an important milestone for the future of the Swiss watch industry.”. This first “Haute Horlogerie” Smart Watch timepiece will be presented on Mach 9th. 

 
Sebastien Eich 

 Info sourced at all brands official communication releases. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available