iMCO's CoWatch, Alexa-powered smartwatch, is now available at Amazon.
The CoWatch allows the user to interact with Amazon's cloud-based voice service, Alexa. A simple tap will activate the voice assistant and it can be told to do anything from ordering pizza to controlling smart home devices. It's practically an Amazon Echo on the wrist.
"Since the very beginning, we only thought about something that could really simplify our daily lives," says Eric Jin of the CoWatch development team. "We knew the future is in wearables and from there the idea of CoWatch was born."
Of course, it also comes with other smartwatch basic functions such as the step counter, stopwatch, heart rate monitor, speed dial, timer, weather, notifications, music Bluetooth control and so on. Users will also get a number of watch faces to choose from.
Unlike most wearables, however, the CoWatch does not run on Android Wear, nor run on watchOS. CoWatch uses the Cronologics OS, an operating system developed by Android and Google veterans from the Cronologics Corporation. The new OS is compatible with devices running on Android 5.0 or later and iOS 9.0 or later.
The CoWatch weighs 53.9 grams (1.9 ounces) and comes with a 1.39-inch AMOLED full-circle fracture-resistant touch screen display that runs natively on a 400 x 400 pixel resolution. It is 1.72 inches wide and 0.48 inch thick.
The smartwatch ships with a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz and 300 MHz. The CoWatch has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of flash memory. It offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connectivity and comes with a built-in speaker and microphone.
The CoWatch has a stainless steel and Zirconia Ceramic body. It is dust- and water-resistant and can last up to 32 hours while in the always-on mode.
In April, iMCO started a crowd-funding campaign for CoWatch on Indiegogo, and then officially released it on Aug. 20. Early backers got the device for $159 and a $10 shipping fee.
While it has its good points, iMCO's smartwatch offering also has its problems. Users have complained of various bugs and glitches that comes with the OS, as well as the lacking features.
"My two biggest issues are the lack of recording of steps and the fact that it can be tough to read in sunlight," says a CoWatch owner.
On the brighter side of things, most reviewers noted how the company is constantly updating the CoWatch and adding new features and functionalities on a regular basis.
iMCO has its CoWatch smartwatch for sale on Amazon for $299.
