About 2 months back, Casio announced their version of a rugged smart watch powered by Android Wear and we were bowled over; smart watches that are merely rain and splash resistant with paltry battery life just doesn’t quite cut it. At Basel World 2016, California based Nixon went one up and teased with the ultra-rugged Mission smart watch. They got our attention.
The Nixon Mission houses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 System-on-Chip (SoC) at its core; engineered specifically for next generation wearables with always on connectivity and low power consumption for maximum battery life.
Android Wear will power the running of the device with features such as Google Fit activity tracking, voice search, gesture/music control and more.
With a 10 ATM water resistant rating, the Nixon Mission is built specifically for water activities or harsh outdoor conditions with the polycarbonate case housed in a stainless steel cage bezel. The 1.39 inch Corning Gorilla touch screen comes with an ambient light sensor and will apparently work with wet fingers. I’m skeptical yet curious.
Real time surf or snow conditions are provided by Surfline and Snocountry via a custom built app. The Nixon Mission also contains such a plethora of sensors such as GPS, accelerometer, thermometer, altimeter, and barometer; items you would only find in top of the line outdoor watches from the likes of Garmin or Suunto. According to Outside Online, the Nixon Mission is capable of pairing with an external chest strap heart rate monitor to further quantify your workouts.
If you also own the puck size Trace tracker device, you’d be happy to know the Nixon Mission has another custom built app that pairs with the Trace tracker, allowing users to view their stats during a tracked session.
Customisation options are plenty with choice of 15 different bezels and 20 watch straps. You could go the whole nine yards by engraving on the caseback and even selecting your desired case where you keep the Nixon Mission.
The ultra rugged Nixon Mission will be available in fall 2016 at Nixon’s online stores and select retailers at the RRP of $400.
Source: Qualcomm