SmartWatch Geek

First impressions?  Let’s start from the top…

Unwrapping Process

I have to say, I was very impressed with how the unit was presented in the box.  Yep, I’m one of those weird people that appreciates those things.  To me it shows that a lot of care was put in the actual design of the watch.  Yes I know I shouldn’t use the word watch but that’s my only interest in this unit.  Anyway, as a comparison, I received my inPulse smartwatch (not a free unit btw) wrapped in cellophane.

Sliding my Wimm One unit in the wristband was pretty easy and although the Wimm One used as a wrist watch is rather bulky, the actual wrist band does make it appear a little smaller.  Size wise, it’s nearly the exact same size as the Fossil WristPda (which was also rather big) although it does appear a bit smaller due to the design of the wrist band.  Size wise definitely one of the bigger watches I’ve worn on my wrist.

 

 

Setup

In short?  Easy!  First of all I love how nicely the device snaps into the charger.   Smart move as it will make the daily charging process a little less painful.  Once I snapped the device into the charger, the watch booted up which initiated the setup process.  The entire setup process was pretty straighforward and very well guided through the unit.  First the smartwatch showed me a list of all my wireless connections and once connected to the one in my home, the device showed me a unique code and url to register my Wimm One.  Once you’ve created an account and enter this unique code, you have the ability to change settings from their site instead of your Wimm One unit.  From within their site you have the option to change watch settings like your home city, metric system, sync timing, … + you can also add and remove watch faces and apps from this location.   The fact that a lot of the setup can be done from a web portal instead of directly on the Wimm One is great simply due to the fact that input through smaller devices like this is never an enjoyable process.

Use

During the setup it became pretty apparent how to use the Wimm One.  Since I initially didn’t read any instructions, it took me a minute or so to figure out how you should swipe to move around.  I ended up going to the instructions to understand how to change watch faces or how to go back to your watch face once you’re in an app.  Neverthless, using the watch through the touch screen is pretty easy once you know how.  Navigation wasn’t always perfect but all in all a very good experience.

Wake up

The only portion I’m not to crazy about is the time it takes to wake up the Wimm One.  While it’s only a couple of seconds, the fact that it doesn’t show it’s ready to wake up always makes me wonder if I need to swipe again.  Most people will however be excited to hear that the watch is always on which is rather unusual for smartwatches.  The watch has an active and inactive state which helps reduce power consumption but my personal preference would be for the watch display to be turned off by default to save power.  A button to wake the watch up instead of a screen swipe seems the only way to truly save as much power as possible.

Default Apps

The apps loaded by default are definitely very polished.  I was impressed to see that they were put together with a lot of consideration and user testing.  By default this unit comes pre-loaded with a World Clock, Timer, Alarm, Stopwatch, Weather app and a Calendar.  You can easily add new apps through their app store which you can reach from their web portal or through the companion app on your phone.

Companion App

To link your watch to your phone, you simply need to install a companion app on your smart phone as explained in their mini-guide.  Once installed and bluetooth is enabled, you’ll need to pair your phone with the watch and you’ll start receiving phone call alerts and sms messages through your watch.

Battery

While I understand that there is a lot of power packed in this little device, I do feel the battery life of the development unit is just ok.  I typically take my unit of the charger at around 6:00 in the morning and by midnight (18 hours later) my unit will in most cases complain that the battery is low.  Depending on your watch settings, the manufacturer claims you can have an expected battery life up to 30 hours which would have been perfect.

Conclusion

It’s simple – if you’re into Smartwatches, get yourself a Wimm One.  This unit is an amazing piece of technology and the fact that it runs Android makes it even better.  A must have for a true watch geek like myself.