When smartwatches came to the market a few years ago, I wasn’t particularly interested in them. Although I was fascinated by some of the features, the aesthetics and design of a watch have always been a priority for me – something that smartwatches were not able to offer me. Fortunately today there are hybrid watches that blend traditional watch design with smart features. I’ve been wearing a Kronaby connected watch quite regularly since last fall and the new Apex 43mm model for about a month now. In addition to the beautiful Scandinavian design and superb build quality, it has smart features directly on my wrist.
Why a hybrid watch?
We live in a world full of distractions and we try to catch up with everything. Instead of focusing on what’s important, we are afraid of missing out and we can’t stop checking our phones for messages, calls and new notifications. However, the truth is, by constantly checking our phones, we get distracted and we actually miss out when we are not present. Although it is easy and in many cases fun to spend time on your phone, it often affects our productivity as we are unable to focus completely on what we are doing.
The time that we spend looking at our screens is remarkable while most of the distractions caused by the phone are completely useless and takes away from time that could be used much more effectively. The beauty of life is not on our screens, but in what’s around us. With the help of Kronaby watch, I’m able to enjoy the moment and focus on what’s important and what truly matters in my life without being distracted by my
Design
I personally love the design of the Kronaby Apex 43mm watch: it’s minimal and easy to use and look at. It has a black dial with white hands and numbers, a high-quality 316L stainless steel case and a light brown suede leather strap. The overall quality of the Kronaby is exceptionally good and it also feels good on my wrist.
Because the watch is a hybrid watch with smart features, the watch needs to be connected to a smart watch (or tablet) by using the Kronaby app. Connecting the watch via bluetooth is super simple and takes only a few moments. By using the app, I can customize the features to fit my needs.
The watch obviously shows the time with the hands, but also has two subdials and three buttons on the side that can be customized on the app.
Compared to many
Smart features
The smart features of the watch can be divided to two types: the filtered notifications and features that requires actions from the user. With the filtered notifications, I get a vibration on the watch when a new notification is received on my phone and with the pushers I can start or control certain actions.
With the help of the app, I can customize the watch to my liking. Basically you can customize everything: the two subdials on the dial and the three buttons (two pushers and the crown) on the side. There’s a lot of very useful features to choose from and the app is continuously developed, so there will be more features to select from in the future.
To the subdials, you can assign date, day of week, a second time or a step goal counter. I have a second time zone selected for the other one and the current day of the month on the other. I have selected the crown to be used as a timer, but it could also be used to show date, a second time, step goal progress or used as a stopwatch. With the two pushers, I can control music and save current locations. Or I could also choose to find my phone with it, use it as a camera remote, reject calls or even more by connecting the watch with IFTTT (If This then That) which is particularly useful if you have a lot of smart home devices.
My favorite features are:
Filtered notifications
The biggest advantage of using a Kronaby watch for me is the filtered notifications. Instead of checking my phone everytime it rings or I get new notifications, I get notified on my watch with a gentle vibration. I can get notifications of e.g. new calls, messages, app notifications, reminders to get moving and silent alarms. And on the app I can choose who and what is allowed to interrupt me, so I get distracted only by notifications that are important to me.
Depending on what I have chosen, the watch vibrates once, twice, or thrice when there’s a new notification. I personally have selected the watch to vibrate once on calls and notifications from certain people, twice on calendar appointments and thrice for silent alarms and reminders to get moving if I haven’t moved for awhile.
The filtered notifications is the feature that I use the most. I get the day started with a silent alarm and get notified of important things on my wrist during the whole day.
Remember this spot
When I discover an interesting location, I can save the spot by pressing one of the pushers. With a simple push of a button, the location is automatically saved on the app to my saved locations and I go back to the spot whenever I want – it even gives directions to that spot from my current location. This is a feature that I use all the time. I mostly use it when I discover good places to shoot photos at, but also to help me remember where I parked my car.
Timer
A feature that I use
Less Distractions
I have always worn a watch, but having features besides showing time has been new to me. To me personally, the Kronaby connected watch has been a very useful and it has helped to stay focused and spend less time on my screen. It’s easy to get distracted, but with the watch I’m able to limit the distractions caused by my phone. The best part is that the watch looks traditional and classy, but it still has smart features that are actually useful in daily life.
Check out all the Kronaby models and learn more about the features here
In collaboration with Kronaby
