Smartwatches: It’s all in the wrist

Fancy a smartwatch that tracks menstrual cycles and gauges ovulation windows? The Fitbit Versa is set to do just that, writes Rita de Brún.

We're in Barcelona. Palm trees line the beach - a warm breeze gently guiding their sway.

Usually, we’d be transfixed by the wondrous waterside scene. But not today.

Today our attention is fully focussed on the futuristic gadgetry in our hands, gadgetry in the form of the Fitbit Versa smartwatch and the mystery of how its exquisite engineering motivates us to be our fittest best.

Sitting opposite, in a finely crafted Catalonian chair, is Des Power, senior vice president and managing director of Fitbit International.

He’s telling me why he joined the company a year and a half ago: “I did it because I found it compelling to work for an authentic company whose sole purpose in life is to make everyone in the world healthier.”

I’ve no doubt he’s passionate about his job, so we chat about that: “Sooner or later you’ve got to work at something that really matters to you, something that makes the world a better place. When I joined Fitbit I did that.”

As a head honcho at Fitbit, you’d expect him to talk the talk, but impressively, he walks the walk as well.

Literally: “I walk to and from work every day. That’s 7,000 steps. My challenge then is to try to get out and walk at lunchtime, maybe three days a week, to raise my daily step-count to 10,000.”

He’s optimistic about the future of Fitbit: “The latest figures show that the wearables market is set to double in the next few years. That [trend] is being led more and more by smartwatches.

“With the Versa, the balance between convenience of smart features and the core Fitbit health and wellness features is very compelling.”

He uses the word ‘compelling’ a lot in conversation. ‘Powerful’ and ‘passion’ are other apparent favourites. Senior executives tend to do that a lot and usually it occurs below the radar.

Yet, when Power uses powerful vocabulary, I notice, for some reason. Even so he’s sincere to a fault.

Advising that Fitbit will continue to develop ways to encourage all of us to make daily behavioural changes to help us reach our fitness goals, he says: “The companystarted off 11 years ago with a fitness focus. That has now broadened into wellness, to track heart-rate, sleep and more.”

With that, there’s a highly innovative development set to shortly come on stream.

It’s a female health-tracking app that enables women to track their menstrual cycles and symptoms, and to gauge ovulation windows on Fitbit smartwatches.

Despite the unquestionable smartness of wearable tech and the positive near future predictions for the sector, I imagine that in a blink, wearables will become old hat.

Most of us have already grown weary of lugging smartphones around. It’s only a matter of time before we feel the same about wearing smartwatches 24/7.

Can Power imagine a time when we will instead have our personal tech buddies imbedded in our skin or worn otherwise on our person and can he envision Fitbit entering that territory down the line?

“Maybe over time as fashion and trends change, the manifestation of our products might so evolve. If that happens Fitbit will be at the cutting edge of that,” he replies.

“But what won’t change is the importance that consumers attach to their health,and Fitbit’s bullseye focus will be on playing a core role in that.”

There’s no denying that the Versa’s a captivating piece of mind-altering tech.

‘Mind-altering’ is a strong term, but it’s appropriate nonetheless, as this cleverly designed gadget does just that, It does that by nudging the wearer to live a healthier life.

It also kicks the wearer’s ass to move more and eat, sleep and relax better. In the process, it enhances mood and mental health.

To say it’s a good piece of wearable technology is an understatement.

It’s desirable in a way the Apple Watch can only aspire to be; covetable in a way that likely has Apple’s Tim Cook and his design team quaking in their flip-flops.

As for Fitbit, they don’t do Fit-flops. As a result, they’re a formidable force in the fitness gadgetry marketplace.

The Versa is a case in point. It manages to be not only a tolerable 24 hour fitness and exercise buddy, but a desirable one as well.

It’s almost perfect. But there’s one tweak I’d like to see implemented.

When registering the Versa on the Fitbit app, users are invited to give personal information. This is right and proper.

Presumably the more data you log, the better the technology works for you.

My bug-bear is the gender question; the fact that despite the complexity of gender identity being highlighted at length over the past year or so, Fitbit users are being invited to identify as female or male.

Enquiring as to sex, as in genital type, is so less complex a question than gender. Versa users would expect to be invited to log their sex, so as to enable the gadget to work at its optimum best.

Fitbit should ditch the gender question and go that route instead.