Users can wear it every day just like they normally do, without the hassle of recharging which is required by typical mobile devices. Taking advantage of the low power consumption of BLE, the new watch powers wireless communication functions with a single, ordinary button-cell battery, and without consuming any more battery life than a conventional wristwatch. Now, Casio’s application of BLE positions the company to create new possibilities for the way people use their watches. A prototype of the watch, sharing a two-way data link with a smartphone, will be exhibited at Casio’s booth (#11006) at the International Consumer Electronics Show to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 6-9, 2011.Ĭasio has been redefining the wristwatch for years by applying the latest technologies. LAS VEGAS, JANUCasio Computer Co., Ltd., announced today that it has developed a watch using Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) technology, the new low-power-consumption version of the short-range wireless networking standard*. Prototype Features the Latest Wireless Technology with Very Low Power Consumption So while we think some of these features are kind of cool and we’re thankful that Casio didn’t try and ram a watch-based twitter app down our throat it should be noted that it’s just as rude to check your watch in the middle of a meeting as it is to check your phone when an email comes in.ĬASIO DEVELOPS WATCH THAT COMMUNICATES WITH SMARTPHONES VIA BLUETOOTH® LOW ENERGY LINK The technology on the backend is the new Bluetooth Low energy standard (aka Bluetooth 4.0) which thanks to its low energy demands provides a reported battery life of two years! On the downside it won’t work with existing smartphones as none of them have the new hardware required to support this standard. It also syncs up with your phone to set the date and time which is kind of cool. And we really like the feature that lets you press a button to stop your phone from ringing. Bluetooth technology weds alarm information from your phone and can notify you of email alerts. Rather than try and smash the two together, their new prototype pulls a few bits of information from your smartphone and puts them on your wrist. But engineers at Casio are taking the iterative approach with a new prototype. So we’ve seen a few attempts to meld cell phones and watches in recent years and usually the result is expensive, clunky and never really takes off.

Casio prototype