The first product out of New Balance’s Digital Sport division will be an Android Wear smartwatch. The division was announced during Intel’s CES keynote that featured smart New Balance running shoes with Intel chips.
In a press release, New Balance expects the Wear device to be out by the 2016 holiday season. With the Digital Sport division, the 110 year old company is trying to remain relevant in the modern age. Their partnership with Intel and fitness apps Strava and Zepp likely point to an Intel powered watch with those apps preloaded. Like the Tag Heuer Connected and Fossil, Intel is slowly trying to overtake Qualcomm as the chipmaker of choice in Android Wear devices.
This presumably exercised focused smartwatch would be the second exercise focused Android Wear device announced today at CES. The Casio’s Smart Outdoor Watch is aimed at people who frequent the great outdoors and want a waterproof device.
New Balance’s digital division hopes to make more gadgets besides watches in the future. Earlier today at CES, Under Armour released a pair of connected running shoes and has a partnership with HTC to make fitness gadgets like a band, heart rate monitor, and scale. If anything, this CES is quickly shaping up to be another health wearable heavy show.
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