For a moment there, the old traditional watch nearly went right out of favour. It was all the fault of the mobile phone which was the thing to look at if you wanted to know the time. Oh, there were always those who refused to dispense with the old things they loved, among them watches, but the younger generation seemed to be perfectly satisfied with their gadgets to check the time.
Interestingly, watches ended up never quite dying out and perhaps saw a bit of a resurgence when smartwatches appeared on the scene. In fact, never have there been so many designs in traditional watches. But they have to move on soon enough and many traditional watch makers are realising that. Among them Titan, which has come up with its first smartwatch, JUXT. Ever so cautiously, debating long and hard, Titan decided not to go all-out digital and design just another Android Wear smartie. Instead, they decided to stay closer to who they have been all this while and design something that is a watch first and smart, later.
The JUXT is actually an analog watch with a proper physical watch face. But on top of that, it has a small rectangle set aside as a smart display. It's only in black and white and it's job is to channel notifications from the phone, to which it must connect through Bluetooth, for the wearer's attention, with a little vibration on the wrist. You can get a buzz if there's a call coming in, a message, a social media post, or even email. You can also get your steps counted and in the companion app, have a look at daily and weekly stats. There are no other digital bells and whistles and JUXT is in every other way, a traditional watch. The smart features have been built in by HP making the watch a sort of link between the old world and the new. It's for those people who don't want to let go of the way they've always worn a watch and don't want to be forced to keep pace with smart this and smart that. But they have no objection to dipping their toes just a little into the smart world.
Whether Titan is right or wrong is difficult to say but this much is for sure: those who really want a smartwatch will look elsewhere while those who want to stick with conventional and not miss out on being connected to the smartphone, will consider the JUXT.
The JUXT is a substantially large watch and more than that, it's heavy. Quite unsuitable for women, it's a man's watch in a man's world. The chassis, is steel (Rs 15,995), rose gold (Rs 17,995), or titanium (Rs 19,995) and the strap is a solid thick leather. It's also heavy though, and it will take a little getting used to until one forgets to notice it on one's hand, specially since it is raised pretty high off the wrist.
The two ways to interact with it are through the app on the phone, from where you can access settings and link it to apps it supports, and through the three knobs on the right edge, one of which is a crown to move around and do things like adjust the main watch. Obviously meant to look premium, it has been detailed quite carefully, with a honeycomb pattern decorating the face and even the solid luxurious box it comes in. The big thing the JUXT boasts of is its five-day battery life. You charge it quite easily and quickly via microUSB and a cradle after which it can be forgotten for five days. But it's rather ironic that it really doesn't need that long a battery life considering it doesn't do very much. It would have been much better to stick with the regular overnight charging and instead make the watch lighter. That, however, may be my female bias at work.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.