Smartwatches

It's taken a long while for the Blocks modular smartwatch to reach the masses, but at CES 2018 the team behind the device announced that Kickstarter orders are finally shipping, and anyone can buy the wearable right now, for the ultimate in smartwatch flexibility.

For several years now, California-based Martian has produced stylish smartwatches that hark back to more traditional designs. Its latest smartwatch, the mVoice G2, is the biggest blend of old and new yet, combining mechanical watch hands with a full round OLED display.

While it's fair to say smartwatches have yet to become a must-have accessory for the masses, these wrist-based mini computers are making solid strides forward with each passing year. In 2017 we've seen some compelling new products appear and here are our picks for the best smartwatches of the year.

Solar-powered watches are nothing new, but being more power-hungry beasts, solar-powered smartwatches are a different story. A San Francisco-based startup called LunaR now claims to have bridged the divide by developing a smartwatch that draws all the energy it needs from the sun.​

Launched late last month, Fitbit's Ionic is the company's attempt at claiming some territory from smartwatch heavyweights like Apple and Garmin. Now the feature-packed wearable is set to gain a handy new piece of functionality, with the ability to display glucose levels on the user's wrist.

​​Folks looking for a smartwatch and not wanting to splash hundreds of dollars now have a new budget-friendly option on their hands. The latest Ticwatches from Chinese company Mobvoi offer all the functionality of Android Wear 2.0 at a price that seriously undercuts some big-name competitors.​

Smartwatch screens make some functions, like entering text, more fiddly than they’d be on a phone. Now a team from Stony Brook University has developed a rotational keyboard that allows users to pick letters from a ring around the screen, like an old rotary phone.

The idea of useful and fashionable smartwatches has drawn all manner of aspiring wearable-makers, including of course luxury design houses. Joining them today is Louis Vuitton, which has announced its very first smartwatch called the Tambour Horizon.

While smartwatch popularity may not be where the companies making them had hoped it would be at this point, smartwatch quality has steadily pressed forward in the last few years. Let's look at our six top picks, in the latest version of our Smartwatch Comparison Guide.

If you've so far resisted the temptation to buy yourself a smartwatch, then a new prototype device called Cito could have enough moves to one day change your mind: It can rotate, lift, twist and more to grab your attention.

​Today, the Chinese tech giant Huawei released its second-generation smartwatch in the US. The Huawei Watch 2 starts at US$300 and is sold through big-name retailers like Best Buy, Target, Newegg, B&H Photo, Amazon and Walmart, though availability may vary by outlet.

​In February, Verizon quietly unveiled a smartwatch of its own alongside the launch of Android Wear 2.0 in the LG Watch Style and Sport. Today, the carrier confirmed that the Wear24 watch will hit stores starting May 11.

​Verily, a health tech firm owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has unveiled a smartwatch that gathers extensive raw health data for researchers. The investigational device is not for sale to the public, but it’s already earmarked for studies on Parkinson’s Disease and longitudinal health.

If price is the only thing that's kept you from buying a smartwatch, Chinese smartphone-maker ZTE will soon have a new budget – and cellular-connected – option in the US, dubbed the Quartz.

Today, Garmin announced its latest fitness-oriented smartwatch. The Forerunner 935 seeks to capture an uncommonly thorough range of activity data and automatically analyze it to provide insights on training and performance. It's aimed at runners, swimmers and multi-sport athletes.