Smartwatch Vitality: The 4th Connected Innovation From Frederique Constant
Press Release
Smartwatch Vitality: The 4th Connected Innovation From Frederique Constant
Frederique Constant is proud to introduce its latest connected watch, the Smartwatch Vitality, bursting with technology and featuring a digital dial revealed on demand. In addition to the features that were key to the success of its predecessors, the Smartwatch Vitality embraces a major innovation in the form of a new generation, integrated sensor developed by Philips Wearable Sensing, which can measure the heart rate directly from the wrist.
Back in 2015, Frederique Constant unveiled its Horological Smartwatch. More than a new timepiece, it created a new segment within the watchmaking industry. For the very first time, a Swiss manufacture had designed, developed and assembled a watch with a classic Swiss Made aesthetic (analogue dial and hands) endowed with onboard intelligence, and powered by a quartz movement supported by a connected module with two years of autonomy.
The Horological Smartwatch was followed by two other developments: the Horological Smartwatch Notify (2016) - based on the same principle, with additional notifications for calls and messages - and the Classic Hybrid Manufacture (2018), the first model to combine a Manufacture movement with intelligent functionalities. Today marks a new chapter in this great saga: the Smartwatch Vitality.
A long tradition of innovation
As with previous iterations, the Smartwatch Vitality represents a major breakthrough, in line with the continuous innovation championed by Frederique Constant. And yet, at first glance, none of this is visible; once again, the Manufacture has committed itself to a classically elegant and timeless looking watch, but one that harbours the ultimate connected technology… without giving anything away.
One dial, two displays; the best of both worlds
The Smartwatch Vitality has a dial with two faces – a first at Frederique Constant. The first is characterised by Roman numerals and hand-polished hour and minute hands... chic and contemporary classicism for those who appreciate sophisticated timepieces with a refined look.
When pressing the crown, the dial reveals a digital display on its lower part that allows the user to access numerous information like the heart rate, the activity tracker, a second time zone and even the last five messages from your favourite apps, among other things. The dial lets the light of the digital screen placed behind it, shine through. The latter displays connected functionalities - itself connected to the watch's microprocessor.
Since the Smartwatch Vitality model is connected to the Frederique Constant Smartwatch App (available for iOS and Android), all the functionalities of the watch may be configured directly via the application. The user can choose to display all the timepiece’s connected functions on the screen or configure a selection of information only. For an even more personalized usage, the order in which the information can be passed can also be determined.
To move from one function to another, all the user needs to do is push the crown: simple, intuitive, immediate. As soon as the latter has taken note of the desired information, the digital screen returns to standby mode and is once more invisible to the eye. The Smartwatch Vitality then regains its classic and elegant appearance in an instant.
A real technological leap
The Smartwatch Vitality benefits from technological advances made by the Manufacture over the past five years. It is powered by the FC-287 calibre (men’s models) and FC-286 calibre (ladies’ models). Once again, Frederique Constant is leveraging quartz technology for the user’s benefit.
The battery of the Smartwatch Vitality is rechargeable and lasts up to 7 days for the ladies’ models and 11 days for the men’s models, depending on the usage. What is more, advances in miniaturisation allowed the 36 mm diameter ladies’ model to offer the same functionality as the 42 mm model.
An array of intelligent features
The new Smartwatch Vitality has a wide variety of intelligent features, which details, and objectives, can be defined via the App directly. Some of them have been inherited from their predecessors - in development since 2015:
– Activity tracking: number of steps, calories burned, distance covered.
– Dynamic coach: personalised guidance to help the user stay in shape, based on the activity tracker, sleep tracker and the goals that have been defined.
– Get-active alerts: physical activity reminder after a certain period of inactivity.
– Sleep monitoring: sleep cycle analysis: deep sleep, light sleep and time spent awake.
– Smart sleep alarms: alarm based on sleep cycle analysis, to wake the user at the optimal time.
– Worldtimer / Second time zone
– Always on-time: the time and date automatically synchronises with the smartphone’s information to which the watch is connected.
– Call notification
– Message notification
In 2020, these features are joined by various new functions:
– Workout: measures the user’s pulse when taking exercise. Once the function activated, the heart rate is measured every 10 seconds. Statistics from the training session can then be viewed in detail via the app.
– Chronograph: can now be activated and stopped simply by pressing on the watch glass. While training, the digital dial display will automatically switch to the minutes and seconds countdown timer. To ensure that this countdown remains easy to read even in strong light (common outdoors), the minute hand will also show the passing of the seconds.
– Heart rate monitoring: the Smartwatch Vitality is equipped with a new-generation sensor, developed by experts in the field, Philips Wearable Sensing. Thanks to the integration of the optical heart rate measurement, the pulse can now be taken from the wrist roughly every minute for greater accuracy. This new built-in sensor also provides information on physical activity and training performance. It can be active day and night, its algorithm also using the brightness index. Heart rate notifications: in the event that the user’s heart rate drops too low or climbs too high, a vibration and a visual alert will be emitted by the watch, which can be turned into an alarm if the problem persists.
– Breathing exercise: offers a series of breathing exercises to reduce stress and regulate the user’s breathing.
– Messages review: after selecting the apps the user wants to receive notifications from, they will be able to view the last 5 messages received (chronologically) on their watch dial. Apps may include: Mail, Messages, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, WeChat, Viber, Uber, KakaoTalk, Pinterest and Spotify.
– Weather: maximum and minimum local temperatures displayed instantly on the dial.
To optimise these features’ efficiency and provide the user with as much information as possible, everything is gathered, analysed and consolidated within the app.
A complete collection now available
True to its tradition, Frederique Constant offers a complete collection of Smartwatch Vitality timepieces, including four men's models and four ladies’ models. The former combines a 42 mm stainless-steel case with a black rubber strap or a steel bracelet, complemented with a rose gold-plated version. Discreet and understated, the Smartwatch Vitality for men comes with a blue, grey or black dial.
The four ladies’ models are shaped in a 36 mm polished stainless-steel, rose gold-plated or two-tone gold/steel case. The women's designs combine elegance and grace with a floral pattern spread over the dial, around which eight-hour markers are set with diamonds.
In terms of straps, Frederique Constant wanted to give customers plenty to choose from. Each of the ladies’ models comes with a leather strap or steel bracelet, but can equally be accessorised with a range of five other stylish and sporty rubber straps. Match your Smartwatch Vitality to your mood with straps in colours such as purple, white, pink, red and grey, sold separately.