Chronos Wearables – Turn Any Watch Into A Smartwatch

Chronos Wearables

Tired of wearing your Smartwatch on one wrist and your prized timepiece on the other at the same time? You wish there was a gadget to combine both, without having to swap your strap? 😉 Look no further! We have the solution for you; meet Chronos Wearables. The smart disc that attaches to the back of any watch. Though this may sound like an extract from a cheap and pushy TV Shop commercial, it is actually true. The device we are about to have a closer look is the missing link between smart technology and your existing watch collection. A gadget that can turn any watch, and I mean any, into something like a Smartwatch.

So far we have seen 2 types of smart watches; the Apple or TAG type digital device that has a LCD screen, a satellite of your smartphone, on your wrist. Then you had the Frederique Constant type, an analog looking watch with fitness tracking sensor built in the case. Chronos Wearables is a 3rd much more convenient solution.

Smart/Watch

This product was developed for those, who would like to have some smart watch features without having to sacrifice to wear their mechanical watch. Chronos is a tiny gadget (3mm thin, 33mm diameter and weights 10g) that you can stick to the back of your watch. It gathers information just like those built-in sensors in the afore mentioned smart watches. The difference is, you can detach and reattach Chronos to any other watch you have. This way you can use a different time piece every day but still have the same smart features with you. Chronos, like most smart devices, is connected meaning it requires having its app on your phone (Android or iOS). It synchronizes with Bluetooth to deliver your results to your phone.

Chronos Functionality

The device is quite easy to set up; download the app, enable your Bluetooth and place Chronos on its charger. It will find and connect to your phone immediately. You can download the Chronos app from the App Store or Play Store for free. Make sure your Bluetooth is turned on so it can synchronize with Chronos as often as possible.

Fitness

As you can see from the photo you have three main areas and a couple of more options under “Menu”. At the bottom of the screen you can find these three areas such as fitness, notifications and gestures. Fitness will be the standard page to load once you launch the app. This feature offers you the usual options; steps, distance and active calories are all measured. You can switch between them by swiping left or right on the screen. The day is displayed on a 24-hour circle and a white index shows you the time. In the middle of the circle you can see which one of the three features is displayed. Under it the goal you set to yourself. Beneath the goal you find the Manage button where you can set or change your goals.

Notifications

The second feature and something I found actually pretty useful is Notifications. Chronos is capable of vibrating and also lights up thanks to some built-in LEDs. The notifications section actually has two groups. The app Notifications allows you to set up and customize a notification to your apps on your phone. You choose an app from the list given by the Chronos app like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, eBay, Instagram and so on. Then you can decide what color and what kind of buzz you want to associate with the notification. Whenever you receive a message from Whatsapp for instance, Chronos will have one long buzz and the device lights up in blue.

The other part of the Notifications is Contact Notifications. Based on the same principal as above, here you can set up custom notifications for various contacts. At the bottom of the page you see a green bar that says “Add Notification”. This is the area where you can set both App and Contact Notifications. After choosing the person or app you can customize the signal and Chronos will then save it automatically and it appears in the list.

Gestures

The third feature is again something that many users will enjoy. It is a clever and actually very cool little add-on that turns your watch into a remote control. Basically with Chronos Wearables attached to the back of your watch you can control certain things on your phone by tapping on the crystal or the crown. You can mute your phone if you have an incoming call. Just tap the crystal twice. Same goes for the media player, if it’s in your pocket but you need to skip to the next song, tap the crown three times. Or if you only want to pause music, tap the crown twice. Control your phone’s camera by tapping the crystal twice. Last but not least Gestures allows you to find your phone if you misplaced it. Just tap the crystal repeatedly and the phone stars to ring.

Menu

If you tap the top left corner of the app where the menu bar is placed a side tap opens up. Here you can set a few other attributes. You can change the brightness of the light or turn it off completely. In case you misplaced your watch or just Chronos tap Fin Chronos and the device stars buzzing and the lights flashing until you stop it in the app. You can check the battery level of your Chronos and see if still has some juice.

WIS friendly

I’m not a one-watch guy, like many of you. So as much as I love these horological smart watches out there they are not meant for me. While you will never see me wearing an Apple Watch, Chronos is something I can imagine myself using on the long run. The iPhone can measure some of the same attributes Chronos can. But the phone is not that accurate. Chronos Wearables is non-magnetic, water resistant so technically you can attach it to any watch and take it anywhere you go. It is not visible under the watch at all. I tried it with sports and dress watches and it never bothered me. On the contrary, I didn’t even recognize I was already wearing it under my watch and started to look for the Chronos device in my office.

What else should you know?

With a full charge the device is good for about two days. The charger is USB connected and Chronos can be charged while attached to a watch. It’s pretty obvious but worth mentioning that while the fitness data is stored in the deice and upon connecting to the phone it is displayed by the app the Notifications or the Gestures only work if the phone is connected to the device. The price of Chronos Wearables is $99.99 (€90) and you can order it from their website. This price is more than friendly and Chronos makes a perfect – Christmas – gift.