HP Collaborating with Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, and others for luxury wristwatches

HP announced in October a partnership with Movado Group Inc. to expand HP technology into new lines of high-end wristwatches. This includes new wristwatches from well-known manufacturers like the Coach Bleeker Smart from Coach, Classic Smartwatch from Hugo Boss, Connect from Juicy Couture, TH 24/7 from Tommy Hilifiger, and the Scuderia XX Ultraveloce from Ferrari.

The new watches are traditional analog wristwatches peppered with smartwatch features such as having the ability to send and receive calendar notifications from the wearer's smartphone or tracking the wearer's activities. Making calls or sending messages from these watches, however, will not be possible.

A special Android or iOS app will be required to send and display smartphone messages onto the OLED screens of the watches. According to HP, connected Bluetooth smartphones must be running Android 4.4 or iOS 8.4.1 or above. The app will not work with existing Android tablets, iPads, or even the Motorola Droid Turbo 2.

These hybrid wristwatches are charged via USB with a battery life of 3 to 4 days from a charging time of about 3 hours. Cleverly, the watches each utilize two independent batteries for analog and digital functionalities. Thus, even a "dead" watch will still continue to operate as a regular analog watch should its digital features run out of juice.

The Boss and Ferrari watches are available in Germany for 399 Euros and 325 Euros, respectively, with the others to follow soon in other regions.

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