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Citizen i:Virt M: A wrist watch that lets you read your text messages and reject calls

Categories: Accessories, Japan
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 4:47 AM

Young people don’t wear wrist watches anymore. They’d rather have a mobile phone. It’s connected to the cell tower after all so you never have to make sure your clock is set properly. Watch makers are not just going to watch their revenues slip away however, they have to innovate, and in Japan Citizen is doing just that with their new i:Virt M line. These watches have Bluetooth and use that connection with your mobile phone to alert you of incoming calls, new text messages, even letting you read text messages, as well letting letting you snap a photograph by using your watch as a shutter button.

Will we see this watch come to European and American shores? Highly doubtful, but at least it shows you the direction the industry is heading. With Bluetooth 4.0 due to become a standard any day now, and devices using the technology hitting the market early next year, maybe wearing a watch will be considered cool again?

The spec sheet says this thing is supposed to last 5 days when you have it constantly connected to your phone, and 1 month if you don’t bother pairing your watch to your phone. The LCD also has 64 colors. The lite model weighs 100 grams, the heavy one is 126 grams. Is that a lot? I really don’t know anything about watches.

One more photo, this time of the real watch, after the jump. It’s quite nice actually.

[Via: One India; hat tip to @tomiahonen]

[Citizen i:Virt M official site]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.