Strata, is a smart sportwatch designed to compliment your smartphone and give you Hands Freedom™. Supporting a Dual-Mode Bluetooth 4.0** connection to your iPhone 4s, or a Bluetooth 2.1 (SPP) connection to your Android smartphone, you can check messages, see who’s calling, control music, view weather, and more, all from your wrist.

The body and strap is double injection molded PU, co-molded with a tough PC poly case. The mineral hardened glass lens has an anti-glare optical coating and is surrounded by a titanium finished, stainless steel top ring. The result is lightweight, durable, comfortable, and eye catching.

What is Hands Freedom™?

“Hands Freedom” is how we describe the broad range of benefits MetaWatch Strata provides. A vibrating alert and a simple glance reveals everything you need to decide whether to act on a notification now or later. This saves time, conserves phone battery, and eliminates much of the ‘friction’ that comes with using smartphones.

Our passion for design is why we spend so much time sweating the details like the geometry, materials, and finishes. A smartwatch should provide utility, but more importantly, it needs to make you feel good emotionally to wear it. What is on the outside is just as important as what is on the inside.

The unique mirror display is always-on and made for direct sunlight.

Configurable on-screen widgets provide at-a-glance updates on weather, appointments, stock prices and more. Your other phone Apps can get access to the widget and Application mode of your watch so that they can extend their own interfaces to wrist.

Whether running, or biking; at the office or at home; morning, afternoon, or night; MetaWatch Strata delivers Hands Freedom™.

Open Simple Connected

Developers welcome! There are several ways that app developers can interface with MetaWatch to enhance their use. iPhone app developers can use the Widget SDK to place glanceable information on the watch or use the AppMode SDK to take control of the watch and provide a wearable interface for their app or service.

All the apps live on the phone and not on the watch. There are no complicated "watch" app stores or waiting for your watch to load a new application.

Hackers and product developers are welcome! The embedded watch code is open source so you can create your own native watch code for experiments, proof of concepts, maybe even launch your own product using MetaWatch as your platform!

Features

• Multiple Watch Faces

• Caller-ID Notifications

• SMS & Email Notifications

• Facebook & Twitter Notifications

• Weather / Stock/ Calendar Widgets

• Lost Phone Alarm

• Alarms & Timers

• Music Control

• Integrated Running and Cycling App
  
  

Specifications

• Handset compatibility: iPhone 4s, iPad (3), Android (various)

• Sensor compatibility: Initially, Wahoo Fitness BLE sensors for iPhone 4s

• iOS compatibility: iOS 5 (basic functionality), iOS 6 (enhanced functionality)

• Double injection molded PU, co-molded with PC body

• Mineral hardened glass lens with anti-glare coating

• Titanium finished stainless steel top ring

• 5 ATM water resistant (you can swim with it, but no diving)

• 96x96 mirror polymer network display

• Vibrating alerts

• 6 buttons

• Rechargeable (5-7 day battery life)

• Dual Mode Bluetooth 4.0**

• 3 Axis accelerometer / ambient light sensor
  
  

**Dual-Mode Bluetooth 4.0 means that we can support connections to the phone via BLE (aka Bluetooth Smart) while also using standard 2.1 (Basic Rate) for standard Profiles.

FAQ

Which Android phones will be supported?

Details about compatibility with specific Android versions and phones will be issued in the next two months. It seems like most phones with an OS version greater than 2.1 should be compatible, but there are a lot of variables that need to be checked out.

How long is the battery life?

Battery life estimation is complex and is related to use (ie the number of daily alerts, etc.). We estimate you’ll need to recharge your watch every 5-7 days, depending on this usage. We can provide more details as we develop the software that you are funding.

Why are most of your pledge levels capped?

Simple answer – to meet the expectations we’ve set in terms of our ability to deliver. There is a limit to how many watches we can manufacture in a limited period of time. So we’ve put caps in place which factor in component lead times; production capacity; an appropriate amount of time for assembly & testing; quality control checks; etc. By putting caps in place, we can be quite accurate in projecting when watches will ship.

Does my watch come with a warranty?

Yes, each watch carries a 2-year limited factory warranty.

The display is designed for direct sunlight, is there a light for dark conditions?

Yes, there is an LED front-light that can illuminate the display when it is dark.

This is a consumer product. What about developers?

We have SDKs for app developers to use in iOS and Android. Our app software and firmware for MetaWatch Strata is still open source. We've also improved the hardware to make it easy for non-firmware developers to reflash their watch with updated code via a serial port. We will also sell optional JTAG firmware clips to developers that need it (for in-circuit debugging and low level chip programming).

Is Meta Watch Strata MFi compliant?

MetaWatch Strata is not MFi compliant. We decided on a Bluetooth 4.0-only connection to applications for reasons of battery life and so that we can remain open source to enable innovative new applications. Our radio is dual mode, so we also support Bluetooth 2.1 (Basic Rate) profiles for other services as well.

However, the underlying platform has a footprint for the MFi encryption chip. We put this here for our OEM customers who might require a MFi-compliant solution.

About the Susan Kare limited edition: will this watch be offered for sale again?

Only 250 signed & numbered Susan Kare limited edition watches will be sold. However, we do plan on future collaborations with Susan.

What regulatory certifications will MetaWatch Strata carry?

FCC, IC, CE, AU/NZ, Japan, China is what we currently have planned.

What do you mean by “Open Source'?

All of MetaWatch Strata’s firmware (with the exception of the Bluetooth protocol stack) is provided under a modified Apache 2 open source license. This allows you to download and use the source code software and our SDK to develop custom applications that run on watches or other wearable devices made by MetaWatch.

The MetaWatch Strata smartphone app, the Widget & AppMode SDK libraries for iOS & Android are provided under the Apache 2 open source license.

Code contributions for any of our open source projects are welcome. First you must agree to the Contributor Agreement.

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