Model Karlie Kloss new face of Huawei fashion-forward smartwatch
ONE of the world’s biggest tech companies has hired Taylor Swift ‘squad’ member, model Karlie Kloss, to launch its fashion-forward smartwatch.
Wearables
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A FRESH battle for space on your wrist has begun in Berlin, with some of the world’s biggest technology companies launching wearable technology.
While Samsung beat its competitors to the punch, revealing its first round smartwatch days before its own press event, Huawei, Sony and ASUS today showed off new wearable technology, one with help from one of Taylor Swift’s besties.
Squad member and supermodel Karlie Kloss has fronted a Mario Testino-shot campaign for Huawei’s Watch, with the Chinese company clearly aiming its timepiece at the fashion conscious.
Ms Kloss said she chose to represent the watch as “fashion and technology both play an important role in my life, and I’m excited to see these two worlds come together”.
The round-faced Android Wear smartwatch from Huawei — one of the first to show app and call notifications from Google and Apple phones — will feature a 1.4-inch screen with a sapphire crystal finish to prevent scratches, and a stainless steel frame.
Other features include a heart-rate sensor, a barometer, step counter, and a battery life of a day and a half.
Like Apple’s Watch, Huawei’s timepiece will also come with various finishes and bands, from leather to metal, and is not for penny-pinchers. The Watch will range from €399 ($638) to €699 ($1117) when it goes on sale in parts of Europe later this month.
Sony’s chief executive Kazuo Hirai also showed off the company’s newest smartwatch, wearing the Wena Wrist watch on stage at Sony’s IFA press conference and hiding it in plain sight.
The watch, first revealed on Sony’s Japanese crowd-funding platform First Flight, features an NFC chip for mobile payments, vibration motor for notifications, and activity logger in the back of the watch band.
The watch, due to ship in March next year, is priced from $709 to $828.
ASUS also revealed its ZenWatch 2 device, arriving in two sizes, and with a choice of case colours and straps in October.
Wearers will be able to choose an ASUS smartwatch with a 1.6-inch or a 1.45-inch screen in rose gold, silver, or gunmetal-coloured stainless steel, though both will feature Android Wear software compatible with Google and Apple phones, pedometers, two-day battery life, and a remote photo feature to trigger the camera on a connected phone.
The ASUS smartwatch is the cheapest of the recent crop, starting at $238.
The new smartwatches will go head-to-head with Apple’s Watch that IDC recently named as the top-selling smartwatch.
Originally published as Model Karlie Kloss new face of Huawei fashion-forward smartwatch
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