Mondaine smartwatch beats Tag Heuer out of the gate with pre-order

For those looking to add some sophistication to their collection, there is no need to wait on Tag Heuer for a luxury smartwatch. Rival Mondaine has just announced the Helvetica 1 Smart watch as now available for pre-order.

This watch will monitor everything from sleep to calories, with adaptive features and alerts that will update you as your daily patterns change. Technology by Fullpower Technologies’ MotionX drives the tracking features. The watch itself will not display the information; users will have to use a companion app in order to retrieve their data.

The Helvetica 1 is said to boast a two-year battery life, blowing competitors like the Apple Watch (which has a battery life of about 18 hours) clear out of the water. Its sophisticated look features genuine leather straps, a stainless steel brushed case, and sapphire anti-reflective coated glass. Moreover, it’s water resistant up to 100 feet.

The watch debuts at hefty $850, which will rise to $950 in September. Though fairly expensive, the first batch of this exclusive watch is already in high demand since Mondaine is only releasing 1,957 units — a nod to the year the Helvetica typeface was invented. Each pre-ordered edition will be engraved with “1 of 1,957,” and so on.

This chic device is anticipated to catapult smartwatch concepts to a sophisticated new level and raise consumer expectations. The sales of established activity trackers and smartwatches like the Fitbit and Apple Watch likely won’t be affected by the Helvetica 1, but we certainly hope that Mondaine’s smartwatch will stir up creative competition in the future.