More commonly renowned for its designer clothing line, Armani is tapping into the wearable industry with its own line of smartwatches that it's calling "Emporio Armani Connected."
It's not the first time a major fashion brand has jostled over the threshold of wearable technology. Early this September, Michael Kors also launched its own Android Wear smartwatch lineup. Luxury brand Hermès also partnered with Apple to come up with the Apple Watch Hermès collection.
Armani's smartwatches lack a few capabilities usually found on true smartwatches already found in the market today.
Though the lineup misses a few bells and whistles present on conventional smartwatches, they do come with some of the most useful and necessary ones that people often want from a connected wristwatch.
All of the smartwatches in the lineup support Bluetooth technology, which already sets the track for pairing, syncing and integration. When paired to a smartphone, the user is able to control music via the smartwatch, which also acts as a wireless remote for the smartphone's camera.
Apart from those features, the Armani smartwatches also include sleep pattern monitoring, alarm features, location finder for when users lose their smartphones and the ability for the smartwatch to vibrate whenever a notification lands on a user's smartphone.
Armani claims that the smartwatches will offer maximum time-telling precision and the ability to shift between two different time zones.
Armani is outfitting the phones with a quartz battery, which roughly translates to extended juice compared with traditional smartwatches that pack lithium-ion batteries. While this forebodes a longer usage period than lithium-ion smartwatches, it does mean that users won't be able to recharge the battery once the juice runs out.
Battery replacements are likely the logical solution for this lineup once they run out of power, which seems like an inconvenience. However, the battery life is reported to last around six months.
Of course, true to its brand, the smartwatches are fashionable, coming in different colors: black, gunmetal, rose gold and the traditional steel finish with options for a leather wrist strap or a three-piece link strap.
Select boutiques will store the Emporio Armani Connected series on shelves starting next week, and they will also be available online with a starting price of $250, shooting up to $400 for different models. Armani's entry in the smartphone industry seems a bizarre inroad, given the slightly dismal current of smartwatches in general, suffering a decline in sales of late.
Armani isn't stopping here with its hybrid smartwatches, though. The company's long-term plans include a full-fledged smartwatch donning a digital display, which is expected to be unveiled next year.
