Moto Watch 100: A compelling smartwatch for less than $100 | ZDNet

I have a large — and growing — collection of smartwatches.

So when Motorola emailed me this morning announcing that its Moto Watch 100 is now available for pre-order, I was intrigued. After seeing that it was priced at just $99.99, I placed my order and will be reviewing one soon.

Also: Best Android smartwatches

The Moto Watch 100 runs a real-time operating system (RTOS) called Moto Watch OS, similar to what we see from others like OnePlus and Amazfit. One benefit of running an RTOS is long battery life; Motorola advertises 14 days for this new watch. 

The 
OnePlus Watch

is available for $159, but I returned it after a week of testing because it just wasn’t ready for release. On the other hand, Amazfit watches are great, especially the
GTR 3 priced at $179.99

. I’ll be pitting the Moto Watch 100 against a watch almost double its price, so my expectations are low.

While I’m not expecting the Moto Watch 100 to challenge the
Apple Watch

or
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

in all respects, it has a lot of potential. It includes essential features expected of a health and fitness watch today, and it will soon support working with the iPhone, too.  

Specifications

• Display: 1.3-inch, 64-color display, 280×280 pixels, sapphire glass touchscreen LCD
• Materials: Aluminum with 20mm silicone sport strap
• Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
• Sensors: Optical heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope
• GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
• Water resistance: 5 ATM
• Battery: Up to 2 weeks of battery life, 355mAh, full charge in 60 minutes
• Dimensions: 42 x 46 x 11.9 mm and 45.8 grams (with strap)
• Color options: Black and Silver

Heart rate tracking, blood oxygen measurements, steps, sleep, GPS, and more are all included in this low-cost watch. It supports a total of 26 sport modes, synching its data to a companion smartphone app. We’ll be checking for any capability to export or share that data more broadly in our coming review.