The most common misconception about smartwatches is that they are made for those fitness fanatics who want to have on-demand stats for movement, steps and oxygen at any time of the day whilst being able to stay on top of how many sets are left on the bench-press. Well… that may have been the case a few years ago however, nowadays smartwatches are doing a lot more than just telling the time and recording steps and in a lot of cases can now double up alongside or even as a replacement to a smartphone.
There are countless benefits of owning a smartwatch and here’s some that you can find in our smartwatch range here at C247.
Contactless Payments
Most smartwatches now allow you to make payments for an item directly from the tap of your wrist with the integration of NFC (the same technology used in new smartphones and contactless cards). Depending on the brand of smartwatch payment methods may differ. The Samsung Galaxy Active for example uses Google Pay as well as Samsung Pay whereas the Apple Watches all use Google Pay and Apple Pay.
Notifications Straight from your wrist
A smartwatch is essentially a fine-tuned smartphone packed into the body of a watch with extra fitness features and a load more convenience. There are countless benefits of using a smartwatch instead of using a smartphone. Notifications from your smartphone can be viewed straight from your wrist without the need for taking your phone out of your pocket. At face value, this may seem like an extremely expensive alternative but in hindsight actually serves its benefits. Firstly, this allows for you to view smartphone notifications on the go while driving, which you are otherwise unable to do with a smartphone. In addition to this, you're also able to reply to text messages take and make calls all through voice function whilst keeping your eyes on the road.
Personalisation
The way that things are made are not always the way that people like them and smartwatch manufacturers have realised this by offering out customisation options so you can personalise your watch to be more, YOU! Apple watches are renowned for having amazing personalisation options with an abundance of both apple and aftermarket interchangeable bands, cases and screen protectors to choose from.
Heart-rate Monitoring
Most smartwatches, if not all nowadays, are fitted with optical heart-rate sensors to monitor your heart rate 24/7. This feature can be found in all of our smartwatches, however, many smartwatch manufacturers have now gone above the newest standard of heart rate monitoring to feature even more intuitive health monitoring benefits to let you get the most out of your smartwatch.
ECG Tracking
Some smartwatches now come with ECG tracking which in turn is a more advanced method of heart rate monitoring. As opposed to standard heart rate monitoring, which outputs your average rate and BPM, ECG tracking detects irregular heart rates, irregular heart rhythms and it can even detect atrial fibrillation. These sophisticated health monitoring features are found in the Apple Watch Series 6 and other premium watch models.
Calorie Tracking
Calorie tracking is a feature that is seen on the vast majority of smartwatches and is an essential feature as far as smartwatch fitness is concerned. Your smartwatch will take into account your age, your weight, your gender and typical activity when inputted during the setup in order to give you the most accurate calorie tracking possible. Throughout the day your smartwatch will track your activity and calculate how many calories you're burning. And if this isn't enough, watches such as the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 allow you to input your calorie intake on the app in order to guide you on how many calories you should aim to burn in accordance with your fitness goals.
Sleep Tracking
Smartwatches can go above and beyond to give you the deepest insight into your every second of shut-eye. All from the comfort of your wrist, they can give you a sleep quality goal in order to help you achieve optimum sleep and have you ready for whatever your upcoming day throws at you. When you go to sleep whilst wearing the Fitbit Sense it will track your light, deep and REM sleep stages as well as simultaneously tracking your blood oxygen saturation levels. This is also a feature of the Apple Watch Series 6.
Female Health
A lot of smartwatches now come with female health tracking features in order to help women understand their patterns and therefore be more in tune with their cycles and bodily changes. These features can be seen on the Fitbit Charge 4 which gives female health insights through the intuitive Fitbit app.
Swimming
For the keen swimmers out there who aspire to follow in the steps (or shall I say strokes) of Michael Phelps, the impressive 50m water resistance are features of both the Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6. You can track your splits and sets in the pool or map your route in open water. When you couple this with the Series 6 ECG tracking capabilities, using a smartwatch whilst swimming makes for a satisfying experience.
