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Sunday, February 28, 2016

GUESS Connect Smartwatch

There has been a recurring trend recently with smart watches, as they seem to be churning out like hotcakes all over in the market. Of course, who's to say that smart watches are only limited to the ones being developed by the big names such as Apple and Samsung? Guess would like also to chip in with one of their own wearable technology timepiece, Guess Connect that is powered by Martian technology. These boldly styled unisex smartwatches aim to deliver multi functions which includes receiving texts and various social media notifications as well as making calls all from your wrist.

What makes it so unique is basically its design. Unlike most of the smart watches out there, it has classic designed analog face with a little bit of bling and a polished rose gold finish. Pretty stylish, no? It's quite well built with a stainless steel case that comes with a white silicon strap and buckle. This design totally won my heart at first sight. However, I must admit that it was a tad too chunky for my small wrist; available in 41mm and 45mm size and each watch is about 15mm thick.


The watch has three buttons on the right side, the middle of which is simply a crown for changing the time on the analog dial while the micro USB port is on the left side, cleverly hidden under a rubber flap.


As you can see, there is a tiny monochrome OLED screen that sits nicely at the bottom of the watch face which displays you the date and alerts coming in from your smartphone. Unfortunately the gripe that most users have is when the screen is doing nothing, it appears to be just a black bar sitting across the watch face. Perhaps Guess Watch would like to address this design flaw in their next revision of the product. The LED screen runs on a separate power source from the main face watch and needs to be recharged once emptied. If you're not a heavy user with just a handful of notifications daily, the battery can probably last about four to five days in our experience. And as for the analog watch battery, it is said to have a shelf life of up to 2 years.



Just so you know, Guess Connect works best with iOS 8.1, Android 4.3 and above. To connect the watch to your smartphone via bluetooth, you’ll need the Guess Connect app for Android or iOS. The app itself is simple and straight forward, it allows you to control and tweak the content to be displayed on your watch – from various world time zones and the date, to your emails, texts, phone calls and other app notifications with personalised vibrations for different alerts.


There are couple of things that I really liked about the Guess Connect, and of course, me being a lady, would obviously appreciate the fact that you can take photos on your phone remotely using the watch! Now how bout another selfie? Heh.

Secondly, the function to make calls via the watch itself; because face it, who here has never dreamed of speaking into a watch just like those spy movies we used to watch when we were kids? The audio seemed to have been a little bit unclear at times, but perhaps I can attribute that to the environment or simply the quality of the connection we had at the moment. Be aware that you need to speak into the watch, as being too far away would cause the person on the receiving end of the call barely being able to hear you clearly. No doubt, you might find others staring at you while you're at it but still it's a pretty cool thing to do :P

Last but not least, is the most simple and basic function that everyone seems to underestimate and dismiss as unimportant, which is the silent alarm and reminder function. For me this function is rather useful, as I am someone who is sometimes forgetful, and my phone is often times placed away from my person. The silent alarm will alert the user with a vibration on the watch. This is set up via the Guess Connect app and not the local phone alarm app. For reminders, you can simply press the command button on the watch and speak into it clearly create one. (eg. "Set appointment, August 22nd, 8am for brunch date with the other Fat half).

My final verdict - if you're looking for a stylish watch and a smart watch, the Guess Connect is for you. But be forewarned that it takes a lot of familiarization with the manual and how the interface works in order to use it to it's maximum potential. I fumbled with it myself in the beginning until I looked up on how to use the watch and its functions.

It isn't anything like the smartwatches from Apple or Samsung, but this is a gentle reminder from Guess Watches that it hasn't dropped out from the race yet. I'm hoping for a more improved version with fitness tracking functions, without losing the sleek and elegant finish! Guess Connect retails at RM1,499 each, available at most major Guess stores, be sure to check it out yourself (:

xx