Active outdoors? This smart watch is for you

Casio late on Thursday launched its smart watch, the WSD-F20, in Dubai, specially designed for people with a very active outdoor lifestyle.

Priced at Dh1,899, the new WSD-F20 runs on Android Wear 2.0 and is equipped with low-power GPS and new colour map functionality that can be used.

Speaking to Khaleej Times at the launch, Koji Naka, managing director of Casio Middle East said: "Our watch is not the same as our competitors; this is a smart outdoor watch. This means that it boasts several unique features like offline map abilities, location mapping functions, a built in GPS, longer battery life, and the best thing is that you don't need to be within 4G coverage. This makes it great for outdoor activities such as camping and hiking."

He further explained that the watch is smart in the sense that it is operated through Andriod, which means that it has the ability to connect with a smartphone and share data. But, the selling point remains that you can use the watch even when you are not connected to the Internet.

The WSD-F20 is positioned in the Pro Trek Smart series, the latest addition to the brand of outdoor watches by Casio that are designed for total appeal to outdoor enthusiasts.

It is a successor to the WSD-F10, which was launched in March 2016.

The WSD-F20 enables quick access to information during activities, such as trekking, cycling, fishing, winter sports, and watersports, freeing up users to fully enjoy outdoor activities. The watch incorporates richly-designed and easy-to-read map data from Mapbox, which is used worldwide. Maps can be downloaded in advance to the WSD-F20 and used with GPS data to track the user's location, even when offline. The new Location Memory app enables users to customise maps by adding markers and notes, so that they can revisit otherwise unmarked spots such as a great viewpoint on a hike or a good fishing spot.

"Even before the launch of the watch, we received a lot of interest from customers, mainly because the demand for such a device was not a new phenomenon," explains Naka, when asked about the success and popularity of the smart watch series.

"The demand for an outdoor smart watch has been there for a long time. As of now, we focused on the launch in the UAE, but the idea is to slowly expand into the Middle East and North Africa market. The response so far is very promising. Dubai is a place that welcomes several different nationalities so there was no question that the launch would be here."

Speaking on the decision to launch the watch at Virgin Megastore, Suresh Somanath, general manager of MidAsia Trading, said: "Virgin has exhaustive coverage across the UAE, so we felt that this was a dealer that would allow us an instantaneous connection with potential customers."

Depending on stock availability, the watch will be available for 10 days at Virgin Megastore starting from September 7.

Source: Khaleej Times