Is the Kairos the best smart watch in the world?

There are many misconceptions surrounding the smart-watch.

Poor battery life, lousy call quality, permeability, fragile components are only a fraction of the major concerns (and expectations) of an audience who is still very skeptical about wearable tech in general.

All this is about to change... as long as one can afford the price tag.

The Kairos is the world’s first mechanical hybrid smartwatch, available for pre-order at $499 (“early bird special” 50% off); an object of modest luxury, offering all the common features available to consumer products like Samsung Galaxy Gear or Pebble, in a water resistant case up to 3 atmospheres, displayed in bright colors on your choice of TOLED Dot Matrix or TOLED Icon over the mechanical analog watch underneath.

The battery life is impressive: 5-7 days, while the mechanical movement is expected to last up to 42 hours, and yes, this is a smart-watch that you can actually wind!

The mechanical movement, however does not power the smart watch functionality, like the screen, which still requires to be plugged into a regular USB charger.

The real treat, and revolutionary concept behind this watch is that the company will actually upgrade components on demand, as newer models and technology becomes available. Let’s say a new processor is available in a newer version of this watch: you could either buy a newer model, or pay for an upgrade of that single component.

Of course, this is still a very expensive gadget for the rest of us, as the intended market is not the average consumer, yet the boundary has been pushed and a new standard has been set, which is a message that this technology has a lot more potential than most give it credit for.