TomTom Runner and Multi-Sport smart watches revealed: Taking GPS off the dashboard and onto your wrist
TomTom are looking to get a head start over the inevitable smartwatch influx later this year, launching two GPS equipped smart watches.
The first of the two, the TomTom Runner, is aimed at joggers with fitness and distance goals, while (as its name suggests) the TomTom Multi-Sport also caters to swimmers and cyclists with waterproofing and cycle-run measurements too.
Both watches have built-in GPS and a large high-resolution display, but stay fairly compact at 50g and only 11.5mm at their thickest point.
A ground-up interface that aims to clearly illustrate your sporting performance is also onboard, while there’s a new MySports platform developed by TomTom that lets you plug your phone into a PC and upload your stats to a fitness tracking portal.
It’s an interesting move from TomTom; with the in-car sat-nav market being cannibalised by smartphones, they’re having to branch out a bit, and GPS sports watches and wearable gadgets are hot markets right now. They’re also busy ones, with Nike, FitBit and Jawbone all offering similar products. That’s before you start to consider the potential Apple, Android and Windows-based watches on the horizon. TomTom have the advantage of being a well-known GPS brand, but don’t quite have the same brand value in sporting circles. It’ll be interesting to see how this launch plays out.
