Movado delivers a smartwatch

The makers of the famed “Museum Watch,” Movado, have unveiled a new smartwatch with a design reminiscent of the classic analog timepiece.

Movado’s Bold Motion watch, engineered by Hewlett-Packard (HP), joins the growing ranks of established analog watchmakers attempting to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung’s wearables by offering more fashion-centric options.

“We focused on being true to their brand with a pure analog movement and amplified only the essentials with LEDs and Haptic,” Sri Sridhar, HP’s manager of wearables and smart platforms told Mashable. “In a predominantly digital world, analog experiences have a lot of emotional value. After all, the first killer app for wearables is emotions.”

Although the Bold Motion doesn’t come with a graphic interface screen (its time-telling component is analog) like the Apple Watch or Samsung Gear, it nevertheless delivers a full array of smartphone interactivity via vibrations and subtle lighting alerts.

Rather than attempt to function as a wrist-based computing device, Movado’s wearable instead focuses on delivering notifications, including email, social media updates, calendar appointments and battery life warnings. But, if Movado’s claims are accurate, that last notification won’t be as necessary as it is with some wearables, as the Bold Motion’s battery lasts for a full week.

The device also works as an activity monitor, tracking your steps in conjunction with the Movado app. And, unlike some of the high-profile smartwatch options on the the market, the Bold Motion works with both iOS (iOS 8 and above) and Android (KitKat 4.4 and above).

“We are using our own platform,” Sridhar says. “A combination of cloud services, contextual analytics, mobile app frame work, firmware and a variety of hardware module.”

This isn’t the first such fashion-meets-tech wearable pairing for HP. Last year, the company presented a smartwatch collaboration with Gilt Groupe and Michael Bastian, another device that hid its technological underpinnings behind an analog watchface.

And while Movado doesn’t call its new smartwatch a tech-forward take on its iconic Museum Watch, that’s pretty much what it looks like, and that’s a good thing, design-wise. The Movado Bold Motion comes in stainless steel and black and is available today for $695.