Gadgetory

in a world with smartwatches like Android wear Samsung's gear line and the pebble you might think the time for a simpler wearable has long past but a company called Martian watches is betting the other way offering a line of stripped-down analog watches with just a tiny screen for notifications what we saw of these watches at trade shows didn't exactly light us on fire but thanks to AT&T we've had the opportunity to try one out for about a week in our review labs and so far that experience has been a pleasant surprise I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is the Martian notifier the notifier is really two devices in one a typical quartz analog timepiece with battery life of about two years set by the manual stem on the right and a Bluetooth powered SmartWatch with a small OLED screen a bright notification lamp and battery life up to five days per charge which we've confirmed accurate recharging is accomplished via a USB cable specially designed for the deep port on the watch's side and the door over the port needs to be sealed tightly to preserve the notifiers splash resistance with a resin case stainless steel bezel and beefy silicone band the watch feels pretty robust it's certainly not dainty marsian also offers 22 millimeter watch bands of many colors that snap on without the need for tools that said we were disappointed when our watches clasp fell apart for no reason which we had to go get fixed at a local jewelry store and while the acrylic crystal is supposed to be scratch resistant we wish Martian had gone with sapphire here being able to immerse it in water would also be nice but we understand some sacrifices had to be made in the name of economy as with any SmartWatch the notifier comes to life when it's well notifying and here the Martian does a good job you'd be surprised how much you can fit onto a 96 by 16 panel the watch can display notifications from many core and third-party apps on iOS and Android and the three button interface is very simple the lower buttons the menu the upper button selects and the screen itself acts as a key to though it's really just an accelerometer cue you can tap anywhere on the watch as long as you do it with enough oomph using the watch as a remote notifier carries all the advantages we've come to expect from a SmartWatch and it even offers variable vibration patterns so you can tell what kind of notification you're getting by feel alone there's also support for weather reports Google now the world clock a remote camera shutter a flashlight and features that the forgetful will appreciate a leash function to inform you when you travel too far from your phone and a feature that remotely sounds a ringtone if you can't find your smart phone there's also a utility baked in for activating Siri or voice command but because the watch has no microphone this is only useful in limited environments call taylor martin brad marks say select one for mobile say select no just forget it that's a pretty robust feature set for a watch that looks so basic and with all the added functionality comes the usual hiccups too the watch doesn't always pair on the first try when setting it up with a new phone notifications themselves aren't 100% reliable we've had a few occasions where the watch didn't tell us about a pending alert or the opposite it buzzed us several times for the same alert we tend to think the martian app is to blame here like some other wearable clients we'd prefer it to be cleaner and less buggy the Martian notifier doesn't bring all the functionality of many of its competitors but as we've learned over the past week that doesn't mean it should be dismissed out of hand it's priced fairly it looks good it lasts a long time and it does a fine job of bringing the convenience and utility of a smart phone to the wrist and as a bonus it still functions as a wristwatch even when it's smarter side Peter's out I'd still like it to be truly waterproof I don't like it's app and I'm a little concerned about its latch falling apart so like many smartwatches I'd maybe recommend holding out for Generation 2 on this one but on the whole I owe you an apology Martian notice you're a lot cooler than I thought you were for more coverage on a whole lot more smart watches check out the links below and visit us at pocketnow.com also be sure to follow us where we text talk and tweet and subscribe if you did enjoy this video until next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching and we'll see you real soon