Dudes, track your endless summer with this smartwatch for surfers (Updated)

By Andy Boxall Published January 28, 2016

We’re used to seeing smart watches with health and fitness tracking functions, and we’ve seen a few geared toward specific sports, such as golfing and running. However, what about those who enjoy something a little more extreme, and wet? Settle down at the back, we’re talking about surfing, and the Glassy Pro One smartwatch is here to fill that niche.

Updated on 10-22-2014 by Andy Boxall: Glassy Pro has provided some more information on the One watch’s features and its release date.

Recommended Videos

Glassy Pro may already be familiar to surfers. It’s responsible for a smartphone app which lets you search for new surf spots, track your activity, and keep an eye on the weather. It’s all very helpful, but taking your smartphone out on the waves isn’t always practical. That’s where the Glassy Pro One comes in.

The One smartwatch will have a 1.26-inch LCD screen with a 144 x 168 pixel resolution, which matches the Pebble smartwatch. It’s not clear whether the display will use the same e-paper technology, but the 15-day estimated standby time suggests it will. Getting in the water sees the usage time fall to around 12 hours, when it’s monitoring and recording your surf time. The One watch houses an accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and comes with GPS built-in. Finally, it’ll connect to your phone using Bluetooth 4.0. We expect it to be compatible with both Android and iOS smartphones.

It’s functionality is very similar to the app. The amount of time you spend surfing is recorded and logged, and individual goals can be set. The watch keeps count of each wave you catch, and if you’ve connected up with friends, you can compare results with them. It’ll also tell you how fast you surfed a wave, and how long you managed to stay upright. A detailed weather report is displayed on the screen, so you know when conditions are just right.

The watch is available in three different colors, black, blue, and lime. It’s up for pre-order through Glassy Pro’s website for £190, which is around $300, making it one of the pricier smart watches on sale. Buyers will have to have patience though; Glassy Pro doesn’t expect it to go on sale until summer 2015.

Article originally published on 10-16-2014

Former Senior Mobile Writer

Andy has written about mobile technology for almost a decade. From 2G to 5G and smartphone to smartwatch, Andy knows tech.

Topics

Wearables

The wearable on your wrist can predict blood pressure crisis events days in advance

A hypertensive crisis can lead to acute organ damage, and the abrupt spikes in blood pressure are also linked to stroke, kidney damage, fluid backup in the lungs, and heart attack. Research says wearable devices can provide a warning 3 days in advance.

Huawei Watch D3 Blood Pressure (6)

In the domain of wearable devices, we have reached a stage where they are available in a variety of form factors. You can go with a smartwatch, something a little more subtle like a smart band without a screen, or even a smart ring. And as the form factors have continued to evolve, so have the capabilities and the sensing hardware. What started with basic light-based heart rate tracking has now reached a stage where smartwatches are capable of tracking multiple metrics, such as taking electrocardiogram readings, tracking sleep, looking for signs of sleep apnea, or even detecting spikes in blood pressure levels.

Now, fresh research courtesy of the American Heart Association claims that these mass-market wearable devices can help predict episodes of dangerously high blood pressure, or hypertensive crisis, up to three days in advance. The research was conducted over a period of 12 months and involved more than 4,000 participants living with stage 2 high blood pressure.

Wearables

Wear OS is borrowing your phone’s status bar so you never lose track of time

Your smartwatch is finally getting the one thing it was weirdly missing.

The Pixel Watch on a person's wrist.

If you have ever opened an app on your Wear OS smartwatch and had no idea what time it was, Google is working on a fix. In October, the company launched a Wear OS canary emulator inside Android Studio. It lets developers try out new features and design tweaks well before Google ships them to anyone’s wrist.

The biggest addition in this build is a status bar that never leaves. It lives at the top edge of your round watch face, floats above whatever app you have open, and keeps the clock and your watch’s status icons in view.

Wearables

Samsung’s first AI glasses could arrive in December, but only in two countries

Samsung's Gemini-powered glasses might be arriving a little later than expected, and most countries will have to wait even longer.

Samsung AI Glasses

Samsung's first AI-powered smart glasses are finally getting closer to store shelves. According to a new report from South Korea's ChosunBiz, the company is planning to launch its Intelligent Eyewear in mid-December, and if you're waiting to get your hands on them outside the US or South Korea, you might be disappointed.

For those catching up, we reported earlier in October that Samsung was planning a November launch. However, the latest report suggests the release has been pushed back by a few weeks. Samsung hasn't officially confirmed the new date, and there's still no word on how much the glasses will cost.