CES 2016: Casio announced rugged Smart Outdoor Watch Android Wear device
I often hear people state that many smartwatches look like Casio watches of the past. Casio just announced an Android Wear smartwatch for the future. It's built for the outdoors with a 50 meter water resistant rating and rugged Mil-Spec rating and known as the Smart Outdoor Watch.
Even though I still don't think that smartwatches are essential for everyone, you will always find at least one on my wrists as I find them useful to my daily routine. I recently started fly fishing and saw that one of the experiences specifically identified for the new Casio Smart Outdoor Watch is fishing.
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This is the first smartwatch I have seen that specifically identifies this outdoor activity and combined with running support may be a perfect smartwatch for me. There is even a fishing watch face that indicates times when fish are more active, based on atmospheric pressure, tides, and more.
Three experiences are part of the launch campaign for the Casio Smart Outdoor Watch, including fishing, trekking, and cycling. There are sensors, watch faces, and apps available to support these three experiences, as well as other experiences typically performed with your Android Wear device.
Specifications of the Casio Smart Outdoor Watch include:
- 1.32 inch dual layer display with 320 x 300 pixels resolution
- 50 meter depth water resistance
- MIL-STD0810 environmental durability
- Sensors: pressure, accelerometer, gyrometer, compass
- Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
- 93 gram weight
- Tool, power, and app buttons
One glaring ommission I see missing in this list is GPS. While people will often carry a phone along for these kind of outdoor activities, it would be helpful to have the option for integrated GPS for running or other activities when you want to leave your phone behind.
Price and release date information was not shown in the press release, but the folks at Android Central stated an April US launch at a price around $500.