The best watches of CES 2013 – The Verge

Central Standard Timing’s razor-thin Kickstarter watch raises full $200,000 in under 48 hours

2013-01-10T12:19:37-05:00

worlds thinnest watch

Central Standard Timing's CST-01, an E Ink watch that's reasonably billed as the world's thinnest, has made its Kickstarter goal of $200,000 after less than two days. The watch went live Tuesday night, and it's already gotten around 1,600 backers, almost all of whom pledged either $99 or $129 to receive a watch when they're (theoretically) shipped in September. Of course, given how things worked out with the last big Kickstarter watch, that date could easily slip by if it keeps getting funded at this pace.

We interviewed Central Standard Timing's Dave Vondle earlier this week, where he discussed putting the project on Kickstarter. While the …

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The Pebble smartwatch keeps it simple (hands-on)

2013-01-09T12:15:06-05:00

via cdn2.sbnation.com

Now that Pebble has announced it's shipping to Kickstarter backers on January 23rd, the company is finally ready to show off the final hardware and software on its smartwatch. We spent some time putting the watch through its paces and talking with CEO Eric Migicovsky, and we've come away more impressed than we expected with the Kickstarter phenomenon.

Smartwatches are a big theme theme here at CES, but few have garnered the kind of interest that the Pebble has. One reason is that it is simple and straightforward: watchfaces, notifications, and music control are the headline features with only a few other odds and ends thrown in on the side. …

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Pebble smartwatch finally shipping January 23rd, we talk to CEO about its future

2013-01-09T12:15:05-05:00

Gallery Photo:

The Pebble smartwatch is best-known for being a smash hit on Kickstarter. It broke records and leapt to a total of 85,000 orders by the time the campaign ended. The only thing left to do was ship, but unfortunately the company quietly announced a pair of delays that left an actual ship date in limbo - an unfortunately common problem with Kickstarter campaigns.

Today at CES, CEO Eric Migicovsky announced that the company now has a firm shipping date for its backers: January 23rd. It will go out in batches, Migicovsky tells us, and it only recently ramped up to full production at its factory in China, producing around 15,000 of the watches ea …

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Casio’s newest G-Shock Bluetooth watch coming to the US this summer (hands-on)

2013-01-08T20:34:20-05:00

Gallery Photo: Casio GB-5600A bluetooth watch hands-on photos

Late last year, Casio announced a new model of its popular G-Shock Bluetooth-connected watch for the Japanese market, and a company representative has informed The Verge that the new GB-5600A will be making its way to the United States by the end of this summer. Just like the GB-6900 that we reviewed last year, the GB-5600A syncs with your phone using Bluetooth 4.0 and notifies you of phone calls, emails, and alarms with a light vibration. The new GB-5600A is still durable, but its unique design is a bit more subtle than the first G-Shock model. Although the company's watches currently only sync with iOS, Casio hopes to add support for Andro …

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Evado Filip’s location-tracking device can watch children and control their phone calls

2013-01-08T20:16:16-05:00

Gallery Photo: Evado Filip

Evado Filip has announced the VivoPlay, "what is believed to be" the world's smallest location-tracking device that's designed to help parents and children keep in touch. It's a water-resistant, flexible device can be worn as a watch, or placed into custom accessories. The device uses GPS, Wi-Fi, and GSM to display the location of children, it and allows parents to control the messages and calls they can make via a smartphone app. The company says the device is intended to give parents better control over the messages their children send and receive from others, to reduce cyber bullying, sexting, and text message charges. The device allows p …

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Central Standard Timing shows off CST-01, the ‘world’s thinnest’ watch

2013-01-08T20:00:30-05:00

Gallery Photo: World's thinnest E Ink watch

Central Standard Timing is showing off what it's calling the "world's thinnest watch" at CES 2013: an E Ink watch that's a single, razor-thin cuff. The watch is 0.80 millimeters thin, and the company says that it was able to create it by laminating flexible components together into a single piece of flexible stainless steel. It feels as thin as it looks in the hand - so thin it's almost worrying. That said, we'd have no reservation about slapping one of these attractive timepieces on our bodies. CST says that the watch uses an embedded micro-energy cell that allows it to charge in 10 minutes from an external dock, and that it will last for 1 …

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Not-so-smart Cookoo smartwatch limits itself to alerts (hands-on)

2013-01-08T16:46:00-05:00

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One up-and-comer in the smartwatch race is the Cookoo smartwatch, which is already shipping after it surpassed its Kickstarter goal. We stopped by to see the watch on the CES show floor this week, and were immediately taken by how basic the Cookoo is. Unlike products like the Pebble or MotoACTV, the Cookoo doesn't strive to provide anything more than alerts to your wrist. Alerts are provided in the form of a handful of icons that flash on the display that makes up the watch face. When you receive a notification, which is beamed from an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 over Bluetooth 4.0, the watch will vibrate and make an audible alert.

…

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Toshiba’s smartwatch prototype connects your phone to your wrist in classy style

2013-01-08T16:03:42-05:00

Toshiba smartwatch

Tucked away at the back of Toshiba's CES booth is a surprising and intriguing product - a prototype smartwatch that can pair with an iOS or Android phone and provide notifications, kind of like the famed Pebble smartwatch. Instead of using an "e-paper" display, however, Toshiba's watch has an OLED color display and ARM processor. We just got a chance to handle a hardware prototype, but unfortunately it didn't turn on - the only models with screens on were stuck behind glass. The prototype itself felt solid, if unremarkable, but it seems a bit more stylish than the average tech-focused smartwatch at first glance - the bands and colors felt si …

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Leikr’s GPS sportswatch: how a group of ex-Nokia triathletes are innovating on the wrist

2013-01-06T15:23:06-05:00

leikr lead

The Leikr GPS sportswatch launched on Kickstarter last week, and we just had a chance to sit down with head of US product development Ryan Krems to take a look at their prototype and learn about how the company got its start. The team behind Leikr all previously worked at Nokia's now-closed Copenhagen office, and are all avid athletes. That focus on athletic usage shows up in Leikr's design - the watch is more functional than stylish. It features a two-inch color display with Gorilla Glass; the screen itself is reflective, so the colors are a bit more washed out than your average smartphone, but readability in the sun should be much improved …

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Pebble promises ‘big news’ at CES on January 9th

2013-01-03T12:26:26-05:00

Pebble CES Invite

Pebble, the massively successful smartwatch Kickstarter project, will make an announcement at CES. The invitation, seen above, tells backers that "it's time" and invites them to watch a livestream of the event on Pebble's site at 12pm ET on January 9th. Though all we're promised is "big news," the invitation hints at a possible product launch - something that's a bit overdue for Pebble. The watches were originally set to ship in September of 2012, but the challenge of producing enough for over 85,000 pre-orders (compared to an original planned run of 1,000) pushed that date back. Though Pebble hasn't given a timetable for shipment, it's prev …

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