Casio’s latest offering in the G-Shock line of watches is the GB-6900. It’s the first in the line to use Bluetooth Low Energy Wireless Technology, which is really Newspeak for this thing will be studying your daily habits to better plan the eventual machine takeover. All joking aside, it’s a pretty useful bit of hardware.
It connects to most smartphones to automatically adjust and correct its own display time and includes an alert signal that notifies the user of incoming calls and messages. Any ring alerts and vibration can be stopped by tapping a button on the watch. Similarly, phone alarm and vibration functions can be activated with a button press if the phone is misplaced. The Bluetooth signal features a data transfer rate is abound 1 Mbps with a signal range of 2m and a 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard.
As a watch, the GB-6900 isn’t too shabby either. It has five independent daily alarms, a stopwatch, countdown timer, and display options for 35 time zones in 100 cities, including Coordinated Universal Time and the option to enable Daylight Savings Time. Like other G-Shock models, it has a shock-resistant body and is rated for immersion up to 200 meters of water. A battery life of approx. 2 years is provided by a single CR2032 disk battery, assuming the communication function is used for only 12 hours per day. It’ll be available in Japan in March. The USA, and presumably everyone else, will get it by the end of the year.
