This device transforms your analog watch into a smartwatch

BY ADARIO STRANGE From Mashable

A challenge smartwatch devices like the Apple Watch face is the love many analog watch fans still have for their traditional timepieces. That challenge just got a bit tougher now that the Chronos, a device designed to turn analog watches into ‘smart’ watches, has started shipping to consumers.

The tiny, quarter-sized device attaches to the back of any normal analog watch face and connects via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone. Once connected, the Chronos offers a small, but useful suite of functions that mirror that of a smartwatch, including activity tracking using its accelerometer, notifications for phone calls, email and messages, as well as control of your music player apps.

Most of the device’s functions are based on gestures and vibrations. For example, a couple of taps on the watch’s crown can start and stop your iTunes player in iOS, and if you can’t find your connected phone, repeated taps to the watch’s face sets off a ringer alert on the app (Chronos has a range of 50 feet via Bluetooth).

Many alerts and notifications can also be customized to correspond to an LED light that frames the Chronos, allowing you to choose the color of alert associated with certain notifications. Between the device’s eight vibration patterns and seven LED lights, there are up to 56 notification combinations available.

Its rechargeable battery lasts up to two days (it comes with a USB charging base) and the case is water-resistant, with an IP67 rating (the same water-resistant rating earned by the iPhone 7).

Best of all, thanks to the Chronos’ micro-suction adhesive pad, it can be removed and attached to different watches multiple times.

But is this an Apple Watch replacement?

Absolutely not.

The fact that the Chronos doesn’t have a screen means the device is best suited for those not looking for a wealth of apps and instead prefer bare bones simplicity. That said, the device’s fitness tracker app is well designed, although it wasn’t clear just how accurate it was in terms of activity after I tested it for a few days. However, for simple actions, like using it as a remote smartphone camera controller and music player remote, it was flawless.

“We designed Chronos to work discreetly with your watch but we’re excited to see how other people will wear it,” Chronos cofounder Mark Nichol told Mashable. “There’s no reason that Chronos couldn’t work on a bracelet, for instance. Also, as we release future products they will get smaller and thinner, which means that in the future, Chronos could fit on even more things that you wear every day.”

Using the iOS app was enjoyable as it had none of the bugs some other, category-defying wearable apps can sometimes present. As for other mobile platforms, the company says an Android version of the app is coming soon.

For now, I prefer to stick with my Apple Watch and its beautiful little color screen, but if you’re holding onto that family heirloom watch from your grandfather, or simply prefer wearing analog timepieces from Rolex on down to Timex, this is the device that will allow you to participate, at least in a small way, in the wearable tech evolution we’re all undergoing.

The $99.99 device was first announced last year, but began shipping to buyers in October and will begin arriving to most in November.

IMAGES:
MASHABLE, DUSTIN DRANKOSKI
The Chronos in charging mode. IMAGE: MASHABLE, DUSTIN DRANKOSKI
IMAGE: CHRONOS

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