Love ’em or leave ’em, the smart watch category is one that is certainly not one that is going to be going away any time soon. While many of the devices that have been coming out as of late really do seem to be miniature versions of your phone (sometimes literally, as seen here). There is another type of watch in this genre, however, that skews more to the traditional end of things, and that’s what we have here from Cogito.
With the Original (yes, that’s the name of the watch) they’ve created an analog watch that has a bit of a modern, somewhat sporty look. Hewing to that impression is the water resistance rating, which for this watch, is 100m.Now, with that sort of a rating, you’re probably expecting some sort of inductive charging system to keep things water tight, right? Surprisingly, the Original actually runs on a standard button cell that is user replaceable – and should keep things running for about a year. Not too shabby for what that battery is powering. Interestingly enough, their tech specs call out that there’s a second battery in the mix, so I’m guessing there’s one for the movement, and one for the “smart” functions.
And what it’s powering is the usual variety of alerts and notifications that we’ve come to expect from smart watches. The Original connects to your device via Bluetooth (4.0 low energy), and all of the activity is displayed on the LCD that takes the place of a traditional dial. So far, then, all we have is the basic styling to set this one apart from others.
Where Cogito aims to differentiate itself is via it’s tap interface. From their literature, it looks like you can simply tap the crystal (I’m guessing at this pricepoint it’s mineral) to acknowledge or dismiss an alert. I could see this being a handy option, rather than having to mess about with trying to swipe something on-screen, or some of the other dismissal methods we’ve seen on other smart watches.
The Cogito Original is still not quite available (though, you can pre-order yours now for $180); delivery is expected in mid-March. Time will tell as to how it actually ends up working when consumers can get their hands on one, but it definitely has a lot going for it. Sure, it may not have some of the technical trickery we’ve seen out of the more complex entries, but it does have familiar looks and a sharp style. cogitowatch.com
