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Coming smartwatch war with Apple kicks off in Barcelona

Huawei’s watch, which was developed by Ben Norton, a watch designer who has worked for Fossil and Armani, has a striking circular design and traditional-looking faces and drew considerable attention among Android-compatible devices. Unlike a round-faced watch Motorola unveiled last year, which had a rectangular blank spot at the bottom, Huawei’s design offers a truly circular display all the way around.

“It didn’t feel like a techy gadget on your wrist,” says Tejas Mehta, an analyst for Parks Associates, who was in Barcelona checking out smartwatches. “It had more of the feel of a classic timepiece.”

But Android Wear’s focus on extending many of the functions of a phone to a user’s wrist and frequent notification alerts hasn’t exactly taken the market by storm. So some manufacturers were willing to go their own way on software.

From the article "Coming smartwatch war with Apple kicks off in Barcelona" by Aaron Pressman.

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