New Balance Launches First Fitness Smartwatch
New Balance has introduced a data-enhanced smart watch called RunIQ. It’s a smartwatch that is powered by chips from Intel and software from Alphabet, parent company of Google.
New Balance executive vice president Chris Ladd said the RunIQ, which goes on sale in February 2017, is just the first in an upcoming family of digital products to help elite athletes record and analyze every aspect of their workouts.
Built around Google’s Android Wear smartwatch software, the RunIQ watch can communicate with a user’s smartphone using a Bluetooth radio link. Like other devices, it can notify the user of incoming messages or upcoming appointments. The RunIQ has a built-in GPS chip capable of generating speed and location without help from a smartphone. It also has four gigabytes of flash memory, enough to hold about 50 hours of music, playable over the phone’s Bluetooth system.
Though the watch will work with any Bluetooth headset, New Balance teamed up with Danish headphone maker Jabra to develop one of its own. The PaceIQ, which will be sold separately, includes a push button that activates real-time audio readouts of data from the watch — how fast a user is running or how fast her heart is beating.
New Balance executive vice president, Chris Ladd said: “Athletes are really using data now to improve performance. In order to be an innovative company for athletes, we realised we need technology-driven solutions.”
