Lucie Loves... Tech // Fornasetti x Huawei watch
The ever-blurring line between fashion and wearable tech is a trend that has long been on all of our radars. I come from a very Apple-centric household, but try to remain open-minded when it comes to new technological offerings from competitors.
Being a long-term subscriber to both ELLE UK and Vogue magazine, I was becoming increasingly aware of Fashion Editors and their dalliance with wearables: sports-luxe wrist candy.
I’ve toyed around with the Nike+ FuelBand and found it a great motivational tool – especially when training for my first 10K run. I’ve trekked up mountains wearing the Sony SmartBand Talk. I got a FitBit activity tracker (which I re-gifted to my mum) after receiving it as a freebie from some blogger health & wellbeing challenge. But, until now, I’d never owned a smart watch.
I’d seen the ‘other half’ transition from smartphone screen glare to Apple watch screen glare, and can say that I’ve lost count of the number of ‘male appendages’ I’ve seen messaged from Apply watch to Apple watch. (It must be a boy thing…)
So when Huawei got in touch and invited me to the launch of their own special edition smartwatch in Milan, you could say my interest was well and truly piqued.
Huawei collaborated with much-heralded Italian designer Barnaba Fornasetti to create the Huawei Watch as an exclusive gift for guests attending Vogue China’s 10th birthday party.
A celebratory event hosted by Vogue’s Editor Angelica Cheung, at Milan Fashion Week, was the perfect way to launch Huawei’s first special edition watch created in partnership with a designer.
With an ad campaign fronted by supermodels Karlie Kloss and Sean O’Pry, it’s definitely the first of many exciting, creative art, design & modern technology collaborations that Huawei have up their well-accessorised sleeves.
I believe only 1,000 of the special edition Fornasetti x Huawei watches were created, with their full circle, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, face and fine leather Fornasetti printed strap. But standard models of the Huawei Watch, which have various fine-leather or metal straps, will be available in more than 20 countries and regions.
Take a look at the Huawei website for more information.
The Huawei Watch is compatible with both Android™ and iOS™ phones. I tested it out by downloading the Android Wear app from the Apple app store and was able to sync my iPhone very quickly.
In terms of alerts, I was able to read any notifications from pushed through from my iPhone, e.g. Twitter, iMessage, Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, see calendar appointments for that day and read any emails that came through. The Huawei Watch syncs to your iPhone using bluetooth technology and connects to the wifi on your phone.
You can use the watch to navigate using Google maps, use the OK Google voice search and actions functionality (which is a bit like Siri), and also track the number of steps you’ve walked for that particular day, with its inbuilt activity tracker. Like the Nike+ FuelBand, I found it quite motivational and addictive. Meaning that I wanted to try and reach my daily goal of 10,000 steps when wearing it.
The only thing I found a little bit limiting with using the iOS version of Android Wear with the Huawei Watch, was that I couldn’t reply to notifications without using my iPhone. I believe this is completely out of Huawei’s hands until the guys at Apple decide to enable them to introduce the functionality to do so. But watch this space, it might be a possibility in the future. However, Android users can expect a much richer experience – lucky you!
Creative scholarship opportunity
Huawei have an opportunity for designers and artists to practice their craft by receiving a significant scholarship by designing the faces and straps for the new Huawei Watch. Fancy getting involved? Check out their website for more details.*
*Please note the next competition kicks off 15 November 2015
So ladies and gents, what are your feelings about wearable tech? Do you own a smartwatch or a fitness activity tracker? Do you find them useful or motivational? Or just another distraction? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Want more? Check out posts from fellow #HuaweiWatch bloggers and press:
- Jess - Copper Garden
- Annie - Tales of Annie Bean
- Danielle Peazer - Idle Lane
- Fashion Hello Magazine
- Brogan Tate (+ more photos from the Vogue China party)
Photography © Lucie Kerley