Neglect fancy health metrics and AI-assisted niceties. The smartwatch options that matter most in 2023 are model and luxury. Hear me out: With so many related units in the marketplace promising almost equivalent exercise and sleep-tracking features, design is among the few elements that actually units many of those tech wearables aside.
For instance, when you sort “health tracker” in an Amazon searchyou’ll get web page after web page of similar-looking trackers. Most comply with one among two designs: health bands cribbed from the Fitbit Encourage collection or square-faced Apple Watch look-alikes.
However, in a sea of miniature AMOLED screens, slick silicone straps and unoriginal designs, one smartwatch stood out from the pack in 2023. I’m speaking in regards to the Casio Casio G-Shock Transfer DWH5600 collectionwhich is my favourite tech wearable of the yr.
Good design evokes use
What good is a tech wearable if it doesn’t make you need to put on it? What good is a sports activities automobile if it doesn’t make you need to drive it?
Let’s be sincere: There aren’t quite a lot of really handsome smartwatches or health wearables in 2023, not to mention original-looking ones. The Whoop 4.0 is definitely an exception, as is the Oura Ring. Withings additionally makes a number of darn-nice-looking watches — together with the forthcoming Nova smartwatch — with sturdy nods to basic sports activities watch design.
However the G-Shock Transfer smartwatch — modeled off of the legendary G-Shock DW-5000C from 1983 — is the primary fitness-focused tech wearable I’ve ever thought of shopping for purely primarily based on its “cool issue.”
Horology roots, fashionable tech
Past trying cool, Casio did a bang-up job protecting the Transfer DWH5600’s design true to its Eighties roots. Aspect-by-side subsequent to a typical Casio watch, one can be hard-pressed to inform the distinction. Each sport the identical basic octangular design, resin bezel and old-school LED backlight.
Casio additionally didn’t reduce corners on the watch’s tech — even when there’s room for enchancment. The Japanese watch model partnered with Polar for the health monitoring stuff.
Polar makes a number of the most strong health monitoring units in the marketplace, together with the brand new Polar Vantage V3. Nevertheless, Polar smartwatches are usually geared extra towards hardcore athletes than streetwear aficionados/watch geeks.
However, on account of the collab, the G-Shock Transfer gives a aggressive set of holistic options. This consists of health and sleep monitoring, coronary heart price and blood oxygen saturation monitoring, meditation workout routines and extra.
Fairly than a flowery AMOLED touchscreen, the Transfer sports activities a delightfully retro monochrome LED show with 4 bodily buttons to navigate the settings. Nicely, actually, three, as one is devoted to the beforehand talked about backlight.
It’s additionally refreshingly easy to function, thanks partly to the buttons being labeled with their respective features and since there aren’t any cryptic touchscreen gestures to decipher.
Greater than meets the attention
The G-Shock Transfer DWH5600 moreover has some legitimately spectacular options to boast about, together with photo voltaic charging and class-leading water and impression resistance.
When you can’t cost the health-related options utilizing the solar, the time and date show are powered nearly solely by photo voltaic (besides in uncommon circumstances, like residing in a cave). Battery life, by the way in which, is improbable. I’ve gone nicely over every week carrying the Transfer day by day with no need a top-up.
Water resistance is 200 meters, which blows most smartwatches, together with the Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Extremely 2 — two of the finest smartwatches in 2023 — proper out of that water. The shockproof design can be time-tested and (this) user-approved.
It’s time for different legacy watch manufacturers to step up
The G-Shock Transfer DWH5600MB is my favourite tech wearable of 2023 as a result of it breaks the mildew of the mundane, and gracefully merges nerdy, basic watch design with well-functioning health monitoring tech.
Health trackers and smartwatches can tackle infinite types. But, these units largely appear like clones of each other in 2023. Positive, the Apple Watch aesthetic is “cool” when you dig the utilitarian spaceship look. However for me, that’s grown tiresome.
Furthermore, in 2024, I might like to see different manufacturers with horology roots comply with Casio’s lead with their tackle a past-meets-present sensible wearable.
Your transfer Seiko, Swatch, Citizen and Timex.
