Chinese tech giant Mobvoi has detailed its next Wear OS smartwatch – the Ticwatch E2 has a landing page where people can register their interest for updates.
Looking a heck of a lot like the Ticwatch E, which went on sale at the end of last year, the E2 seems as if it will be adding swim features to the mix. The landing page states that “water is now your friend” and it includes an image with the watch being submerged in water, so I'm taking that as a pretty heavy hint that it will be pool-friendly. The original E only had an IP67 water rating, meaning it was safe from rain or sweat but you couldn't take it with you when you went for a dip.
No other specs are stated but, display aside, the hardware is always pretty similar on Wear OS watches - so you can expect 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and it’s likely to be running on a dedicated smartwatch CPU from Qualcomm – the only question being whether it will be the existing 2100 chip or the just-announced 3100.
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Having launched the Ticwatch E alongside the Ticwatch S at the end of 2017, Chinese AI specialist Mobvoi also added the Ticwatch Pro to the range in May. The company is famed for its low-cost smartwatches. It originally launched the Ticwatch in China back in 2016 and soon after hit Kickstarter (raising over $2 million along the way) to make the Ticwatch 2 available to global smartwatch fans.
A recent CCS Insight report suggested that under 5 million Wear OS smartwatches – that’s watches using the platform from search giant Google - were shipped in 2017, and it forecast less than 6 million would ship this year.
However, since that forecast there have been some high profile launches in the space – from the likes of Armani, Montblanc, Skagen, Fossil, Casio and Diesel. Add to that the much rumored Pixel Watch from Google, and refreshed lines from both LG and Huawei also both expected, and the doom isn’t perhaps as prominent as it was just a few months ago.
