Review: MobileWear bluetooth watch
The Propaganda
Fossil make watches. Sony Ericsson make phones. Together they make…. phone watches. This is their partnership answer to Motorola and Oakley who created the O-Rokr shades. The MobileWear watch uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone, displaying vital info on the screen in the clock face. So is it a better deal than the not-so-lovely shades?
The Good
Unlike certain other partnerships that we could name, this watch actually looks like a watch. It’s adapted from a number of existing Fossil watches, and to look at it you wouldn’t notice anything amiss. There are two buttons on the side which control the Bluetooth functions, as well as a winding wheel to set the time.
To pair with your phone, it’s simply a case of choosing the relevant icon and pairing it. Couldn’t be easier. The icons are simple and just give you the ability to pair, turn the Bluetooth on and off (so it can just act as a normal watch) and choose whether you want to receive alerts for messages.
Once you’ve paired it the fun really starts. Receiving a phone call means you’ll be alerted via a discreet vibration from the watch. You’ve then got scrolling text on the screen which alerts you who’s calling. You can also reject the call from the phone, in which case the call goes to voicemail. There’s also a vibration each time you get a message, and a little envelope icon is displayed.
The Bad
The watch is a chunky metal affair, and is likely to only be attractive to 50% of the population. The strap can either be metal or rubber, but either way, it’s not going to set female hearts a-racing.
The functionality is great to begin with, but I was unable to secure a connection after about 30 minutes of use. This might be due to the battery power being low, or the fact that it was an early production sample, but either way, it didn’t work.
It’s a Sony Ericsson product, so does in fact only work with Sony Ericsson phones. This is contrary to many other Bluetooth devices which connect to everything, despite being made by one particular manufacturer.
In our opinion
When it works, it’s fun. There are elements that would make it even more James Bond, such as being able to answer calls from your phone, or text messages being displayed on the screen rather than just an alert that they’re on your phone. It’s £150 from Widget.co.uk so not a cheap accessory, but you’ll pay a large percentage of that for a Fossil watch anyway.
