Casio will make its first Android Wear watch available to buy this week in the US.
The classic Japanese digital watch company announced its first Android Wear watch at CES back in early January.
Now we’ve learned that the Casio Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10 will available to buy on March 25 – provided you live in the US, that is. It’ll set you back a not-inconsiderable $500, which works out to around £347.
As the unwieldy name suggests, this wearable is a good deal more rugged than we’re used to seeing from a Google-powered smartwatch. It’s a chunky 61.7 x 56.4 x 15.7mm beast with generous bezels intended to keep its circular 1.32-inch 320 x 300 display protected from knocks and scrapes whilst out hiking or climbing.
The WSD-F10 is water-resistant to 50 metres, and there’s also a built-in compass available at the touch of a dedicated button.
Most cleverly of all, the Casio Smart Outdoor Watch has a dual-layer display – one monochrome LCD and one colour – and it will switch between them according to environmental conditions. In bright sunlight, you’ll get the monochrome display for its clarity. This also serves to extend battery life to a month, though you won’t get any of those lovely Android Wear features during that time.
Related: Huawei Watch with Android Wear review
Even when using this watch as an Android Wear device, however, you should get five days out of it between charges. That’s highly impressive for an Android Wear smartwatch.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for news of a wider release, but Casio initially said that the WSD-F10 would be released in April.
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Will you be buying a Casio’s smartwatch? Let us know in the comments below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.