The MetaWatch first appeared a few years ago, aimed at developers and
produced by the folks at Fossil Watch. The team behind it at Fossil
acquired the watch and the technology behind it and formed a company to
take it commercial. Next came a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the
MetaWatch line is now available for purchase.
I first took a look at the early MetaWatch a couple of years ago, and
while impressed with the technology, it was clear it wasn't ready for
the general purchasing public. The folks at MetaWatch recently sent me a
MetaWatch Strata to test and get familiar with the current line of
smart watches.
The concept behind the MetaWatch is simple — it pairs with a
smartphone via Bluetooth and displays notifications on the watch. These
include incoming calls, SMS messages, weather conditions, and email
messages. The current watches can be paired with iPhones and Android
phones, and are controlled by free apps on each platform.
The hardware of the Strata has worked well in my short evaluation,
and while big it's light and comfortable to wear. The reflective display
only hits the watch battery when information is updated and is viewable
in bright light with no issues. There is a backlight that can be
activated with a press of a button for viewing the display in dark
conditions.
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| MataWatch Strata Stealth |
The battery can run the watch for several days on a charge. That's
good, because the charging clip provided is not easy to attach to the
phone, even with practice. MetaWatch went with this type of charging
arrangement as the watch is water resistant (down to 50 feet on the
Strata).
The display of the watch is controlled by the smartphone app and the
two platforms (iOS and Android) are quite different. According to
MetaWatch the iOS app (and resultant watch capabilities) is better than
the Android version. I use the Strata with my Galaxy Note 2, so the
Android version is what I have been testing.
The MetaWatch Android app is indeed very basic, but the user
community has stepped up to flesh out the watch capabilities. There are
currently two user-developed apps that not only replace the official
MetaWatch app, but greatly augment the usefulness of the watch.
I am using the Community Edition app in the Google Play Store, which
adds customization options such as watch themes. These third-party apps
also enable using the MetaWatch with other devices such as the FitBit to
display information on the watch screen.
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The second third-party Android app is the Noah Edition, which takes
the Community Edition and puts a nice graphical interface on top of it.
My MetaWatch has worked with no issues using the app above, but a stroll through the official MetaWatch support forums
shows some folks are having issues. There are a number of hardware
revisions of the watches and several different versions of firmware
software. Reading the forum posts, it would seem that some hardware
revisions have trouble with certain firmware versions.
These different versions lead me to believe that the MetaWatch is
aimed at those who like to tinker with their gadgets. It can work out of
the box but in limited fashion, so playing with the apps and
customization is almost required to get the most out of the watch.
I'm still experimenting with different features of the Strata that
tinkering provides. I am happy with the functionality of the MetaWatch
so far and find it extremely useful to have the watch on my wrist. It
eliminates the need to constantly pull the phone out of my pocket, and
that is liberating as I go through my day. The vibrating notifications
provide a discrete way to see incoming messages while in meetings by
simply glancing at the watch.
MetaWatch Strata as reviewed: $179
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