“If you're not in the smartwatch business today, especially as a traditional watch manufacturer, we're the way you can get the right product for your customer.”
said Steve Prokop, co-founder of Mego is online, described the company's business, and it made me very curious and excited about the future of smartwatches. I spoke to Prokup via video call during CES 2024, and while you may not have heard of Mijo Connected, and it probably won't be a name on an actual product you'll buy in the future either, that doesn't mean you should ignore it. this is the reason.
Picking up where Fossil left off
Prokup has extensive experience in the world of wearables, having served as President of Devices at Pebble before heading to Fossil, where he served as Vice President of Engineering and Senior Vice President of Connected Devices. The other co-founder of Mijo Connected is Hai Nguyen, who also worked at Fossil in product management and R&D projects. It's perhaps not surprising that the company maintains a relationship with Fossil, Prokop told me.
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“We are not part of Fossil. But we are following a similar path and have access to some fossil technology,” he said, adding that he was unable to expand further on what exactly that means. However, it is a strong sign of how serious Mijo Connected is in taking smartwatches. , as it makes perfect sense to continue to leverage the experience of the long-standing watch and smartwatch maker.
So, what is Mijo Connected, and why should you care about it? It plans to build a wearables platform on which some familiar luxury and fashion brands will eventually put their names, allowing it to turn out desirable, unique and fashionable smartwatches that also have the right technology and software to support the look.
If this sounds like a familiar strategy, it's not unlike how Fossil has launched smartwatches with partner brands like Diesel, Kate Spade, and Skagen. However, it has recently stepped back from such projects, and Mijo Connected is ready to fill that void.
Smart watches for fashion and luxury brands
“Our platform enables our customers to quickly launch completely different products. For example, a brand wants to launch a smartwatch. They don't want some generic app — it has to be their name. It has to have its own brand and style. It's the same for a watch, right “It should look like a watch from that particular company. That's what our platform does.” Prokop explained.
“The core platform has a completely unique ID, so the look of the watch, the watch case, the strap, everything is completely designed by [the brand] Because they usually have very good design teams that know how to implement their brand style. Same with the app and even data in the cloud. He completed.
Mijo Connected will offer its industry expertise to brands that want to launch smartwatches (and in the future, other connected mobile devices such as wireless earbuds and smart speakers), but do not want to invest in building partnerships with software companies, manufacturers and enterprises. Then learning the hard way how to make a product that represents the brand. Mijo Connected will do all this instead and bring a ton of customization with it as well, according to Prokup:
“We have a very similar approach to how traditional watches are made, where the movement is packaged in different designs and different watch cases. We could go for a luxury titanium case, we could have it docked.” [a reference to jewels set into a bezel or case] On them, or move to stainless steel and other alloys, or to plastic. If someone wants a cheaper plastic case with a silicone strap, that is also available on our platform,” he explained.
The extent of customization and individualization offered means Mijo Connected is talking to both fashion and luxury brands about working together, including some luxury brands that have already released a smartwatch in the past. But what about the software that will run on these new smart watches?
What about the program?
At CES, Mijo Connected launched its smartwatch platform with a software company microage (which is pronounced Micro Edge) and revealed that it will be using MicroEJ's Vee Wear operating system in the future. Although you may not recognize the name right away, you've probably already used the MicroEJ platform on a wearable device, as it powers smartwatches made by Polar over the past few years.
I also spoke to Samir Haddad, chief product and strategy officer at MicroEJ, during CES 2024. He talked about the importance of full customization on the software side as well, so brands can make the device their own. He also revealed that one of the company's strengths is how its technology makes it easy to adapt Wear OS apps to run on a non-Wear OS smartwatch. It already works with a variety of different names, plus it has partnered with Facer to provide different watch faces.
Vee Wear requires low power, but this does not affect performance. Both are longstanding issues for low-cost smartwatches that may have alienated some fashion brands in the past. Vee Wear smartwatches will also work with Android and iOS phones, providing more flexibility. Does this mean that Mijo Connected will not offer a Wear OS smartwatch option and only works with MicroEJ?
“MicroEJ is a great partner, but we have a platform available for the RTOS watch, as well as a platform we're working on for Wear OS,” Prokup said. The selection of software options shows how it covers all your smartwatch customization requirements beyond the physical design.
When do the hours come?
Three main models dominate smartwatches at the moment — the Apple Watch Series 9, the Google Pixel Watch 2, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 — and they're all excellent, but they're not always what someone who likes traditional watches or fashion watches wants. . The Mijo Connected is exciting because it fills a gap in the market that Fossil left somewhat open, allowing brands that want to make a smartwatch to not have to go all out and become a tech company.
The company may be new, but it has a lot of experience with it – and likely already has a good idea of what works and what doesn't when making a branded smartwatch. This should give confidence to businesses that may have avoided using an online product in the past.
So when does Prokup expect the first models to arrive?
“We don't have locked-in launch dates, but you know, in this space, [the fourth quarter] “It's big for everyone,” Prokop hinted before adding, “We're working on a big launch with a brand.”
Mijo Connected will mostly be the company behind Smartwatches may not be a name you'll hear unless you're “in the know.” But Prokup also mentioned that it may launch a small product of its own, though not under the name Mijo Connected, at some point.
This would give us a great idea of what to expect from its smartwatches in the future and how transformative it could be. This could also happen in an industry currently dominated by a select group of tech brands that haven't been meeting the needs of fashion and watch makers well. If things go the way Mijo Connected hopes, it could change the smartwatch market forever.
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