Breitling, a manufacturer of high-end luxury watches has developed their own smartwatch called the Breitling B55 Connected, but it is very much unlike the Apple Watch Edition. The Swiss-made smartwatch’s circular, partially analog face contribute to its classic appearance. Despite its bluetooth connectivity, the Breitling B55’s internal battery can last months, as opposed to a day (like typical smartwatches).
Why? It doesn’t have a full-colour graphical LCD screen like the others. The power consumption of graphical LCD screens is exceptionally high compared to that of the basic LED character display that the Breitling B55 is equipped with. Of course, this translates to reduced functionality. The Breitling B55 won’t have an app ecosystem like the Android and Apple watches. Instead, it will just display flight times, calendar settings, and time zones which the user can control via a smartphone app.
This may be more appealing to wealthy luxury watch buyers than the Apple Watch Edition because of its luxury watch craftsmanship and (somewhat) classic appearance, but it uses a rechargeable battery instead of a standard watch battery (this is not likely to be replaceable in the long run), and its bluetooth transceiver will be outdated at some point. Maybe smartwatches shouldn’t be combined with luxury watches, as smartwatches can’t last a very long time, but who knows. They’ve been getting better.
