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WristRevolution, one of twenty CES TechZones that highlight innovations in specific product areas, will showcase ten companies and their newest smartwatch technologies at CES 2014. Smartwatches from the WristRevolution companies fall into two major categories—those that connect via bluetooth to your existing phone, and those that serve as stand-alone devices.
Stand-alone smartwatches have SIM cards built-in, and allow users to make and receive phone calls without a separate mobile device in your pocket. Burg Limited has been making smartwatches for five years now and has a line up of seven different stand-alone smartwatches. While some can also be connected back to a separate mobile phone. The Neptune Pine, due to be released sometime this month, is a new, highly anticipated smartwatch that has bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and a camera. It has a touch screen with a full QWERTY keyboard, and the ability to host a video chat.
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At WristRevolution there will also be numerous models of smartwatches that connect via bluetooth to your existing mobile phone—these watches come in all shapes and sizes with different technological highlights. The Cookoo from ConnecteDevice offers a simple analog watch face with icons that light up if you have an incoming phone call, calendar reminder, new text message, or a Facebook or Twitter notification. It also lets you know whether you've walked too far away from your phone, perfect for the absent minded consumers out there.
The Sonostar SmartWatch, set to launch later this month, showcases a curved touchscreen as well as an e-Paper display. Kronoz, a Swiss company, has three smartwatch offerings—the ZeNano, ZeWatch, and ZeBracelet—that focus on sleek designs and versatility. The ZeNano can be worn on the wrist, around your neck, or on a keychain.
Qualcomm released Toq in December, a smartwatch with a color LCD touchscreen and a Mirasol display that connects to Android devices. MetaWatch has two smartwatches with simple displays and open source code for developers.
The FiLIP, launched in November, is a smartwatch for children that uses GPS, GSM cell tower location, and WiFi hotspot triangulation to provide accurate location information. It also, of course, serves as a phone—kids can easily call one of five trusted contacts, activate an emergency call and record procedure, and receive simple text messages.
Smartwatches and other wearable devices will abound at CES this year, so keep your eyes out for the new gadgetry that will complete both your phone calls and your outfits. {{ gallery "final" }}