Wyze Unveils a $20 Smartwatch That Controls Smart Home Devices, Tracks Health

Smart home tech maker Wyze is expanding into smartwatches with the Wyze Watch, which costs a mere $20 and is now up for pre-order. 

The $20 price definitely raises some eyebrows, and makes us wonder about its quality. But according to Wyze, the product is built out of an aluminum frame that’s durable, lightweight, and looks an awful like an Apple Watch.

"As we do with all products, we price as low as possible. Meaning, we sacrifice significant margin in order to offer our customers an affordable option," Wyze told PCMag in an email.

To bring down the cost, there's no GPS capability. "This allowed us to create a low-priced smartwatch that is really good at a few things versus doing many things decently well," the company added.

Wyze designed the Wyze Watch to give its existing customers another way to control their smart home devices. Now you don’t need to pull out your smartphone every time to access them. Instead, the Wyze Watch comes with built-in software “shortcuts” for quick access to other Wyze hardware, which can include the company's cameras and smart light bulbs.

Wyze also developed the watch to focus on tracking the wearer’s health. Like other smartwatches, the product comes with sensors that can measure your body’s blood oxygen saturation levels, heart rate, sleep time, and the number of steps taken each day.  

Through Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, the Wyze Watch can connect to an iPhone or Android handset to receive notifications, texts, and phone calls. According to Wyze, the watch can also last up to nine days on a single charge during normal use.

"The Wyze Watch focuses on simplicity of features compared to bigger names like Apple Watch or Garmin. Because of this, the watch doesn't require as much battery and processing power," the company added.

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Wyze would only say the product uses an RTOS, or a proprietary real-time operating system that can still work with third-party apps including Facebook and Gmail. The product is also compatible with both Google Fit and Apple Health.

The watch is slated to arrive in two sizes: a 47mm version with a 1.75-inch LCD screen, and a 45mm version with a 1.4-inch LCD display. The product's IP68 rating means it can survive underwater for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 2 meters.

The Wyze Watch ships in February. Stay tuned for our review.