MyKronoz ZeTime Review
First Things First – Who/what is MyKronoz?
MyKronoz is a wearable tech company based in Geneva Switzerland, they design and develop devices intended to improve increasingly mobile, connected and digital lifestyles. They strive to expand and facilitate the mobile-user experience with stylish, intuitive and functional techcessories. Now present in more than 40 countries and carried by major retailers and partners worldwide, MyKronoz offers a full range of connected devices spanning across 4 product categories: activity trackers, smartwatches, hybrid smartwatches and watch phones. With a unique DNA mixing mobile tech and fashion, MyKronoz’s goal is to cater to the needs and tastes of the world’s most various user types thanks to a full iOS, Android and Windows Phone compatibility at an affordable price.
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- ZeTime
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- ZeWatch4HR
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- ZeFit4HR
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- ZeSport
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- ZeRound2HR Premium
What is ZeTime?
ZeTime is the world’s first hybrid smartwatch with mechanical hands over a TFT color touchscreen, ZeTime blends the classic design of a traditional Swiss timepiece with features of a smartwatch. MyKronoz’s proprietary ‘Smart Movement’ technology enables ZeTime’s always-on hands to function for up to 30 days with a single charge, ensuring the primary function of the watch – to tell time – is always running.
Now that everyone is up to speed on MyKronoz and their ZeTime watch, let’s dive in and see what the ZeTime is made of.
What’s in the box?
Charger dock, USB cable, ZeTime watch and the Get started guide.
Charger dock, USB cable, ZeTime watch and the Get started guide.
ZeTime Hardware
The first thing that jumps out about the ZeTime, is the weight of the watch, coming in at 90 grams. I don’t want to claim it to be heavy, but more so as solid. It just feels like quality in the hand and on the wrist. The majority of the weight comes from the case of the watch, that consists of a high grade stainless steel, which will certainly guarantee the durability over time. Sticking with the theme of durability MyKronoz used a natural sapphire glass for the face of the ZeTime, which is scratch resistant and gives the watch the greatest ability to withstand cracks and breakage. Meshing these together with a nice band and it just touts Swiss watch quality.
The ZeTime has a high resolution multi-touch TFT color display that is crystal clear and absolutely brilliant. The intuitive navigation on a full color TFT touchscreen gives you easy access to all the ZeTime pre-installed apps, as well as your notifications, activity data and more. But MyKronoz didn’t stop there, they decided this watch needed to have actual mechanical hands. They used groundbreaking technology that enables a hole to be cut in the center of a round TFT color display allowing the hands to pass through. ZeTime blended the classic design of a traditional timepiece with the features of a smartwatch to make this the first hybrid watch.
My first thought was, “The watch hands will get in the way of any and all notifications on the smart watch screen.” This is not the case, MyKronoz has a proprietary smart movement controlled by the watches CPU that aligns the watch hands horizontally to maximize visibility of the screen allowing the text to be seen clearly. The result offers an unobstructed viewing experience.
CPU aligns the watch hands horizontally to maximize visibility.
On the backside of the ZeTime is an Optical Heart Rate sensor that can monitor your heart rate throughout the day, manually or automatically. The hybrid smartwatch is also equipped with a 3-axis accelerometer to track activity by monitoring steps, distance, calories, active minutes and sleep. The ZeTime will also alert users to extended periods of inactivity to encourage them to be more active.
Optical Heart Rate sensor
On the side of the watch are two buttons and a smart crown, used to control the following operations:
Upper Button
- Press to light up the screen, return to home page from any menu or put the device in standby mode.
Lower Button
- Press to light up the screen, go one step back in the menu structure, exit a menu or have access to your calendar events from your home page.
- Press & Hold to Power ON/OFF.
Upper + Lower button
- Press & Hold the upper button and the lower button for 10 seconds to reset the device.
Smart crown
- Turn the crown to navigate through the main menu.
- Press the crown to select an app.
- Double press to manually move the hands to 9:15
- Single press to enable night mode (from standby screen) Upper and Lower Buttons and Smart Crown
Inside of the watch contains a battery that MyKronoz’s boosts will deliver up to 30 days of battery life for the mechanical hands and 3 days of battery life for a fully operational smartwatch. In testing I found that I was only able to get about two and a half days maximum with all of the smartwatch features turned on. This will of course will vary from user to user based on the number of notifications that you receive in a day, as the smartwatch lights up every time on is received. As for the 30 days on mechanical hands only, that fell right on the money.
The ZeTime comes with a small magnetic charging base that lets you simply and easily place the watch on it for charging. Full Charging time is right around 90 minutes.
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- Magnetic Charger
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- USB Charging
Lastly for the hardware side of things the ZeTime has a 5 ATM water resistant certification, that will allow you to wear the watch pretty much everywhere. Swimming with the watch proved to be no problem at all.
5 ATM Water Resistant Certification
ZeTime Software
The software built into the ZeTime allows the watch to display most all of your smart notifications on its high-resolution color touchscreen, such as incoming call, emails, texts, social media, calendar events and custom reminders. With just a quick glance, the ZeTime allows you to keep up to date with all the information that matters.
Want to listen to music? Now there is no need to search for your phone in your pocket: with the ZeTime you can control your favorite music app straight from your wrist, allowing you to play, pause, and skip tracks. The ZeTime can also be used as a camera remote for perfectly framed group selfies, and it can help you find your phone by making it ring at the touch of a button.
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- Play Music From Your Wrist
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- Camera Remote
The time and date automatically update to your local date/time via syncing with your smartphone. ZeTime also allows you to display two different time zones on the same screen, with select watch faces, the analog hands will provide the local time while a digital clock will provide corresponding home time zone. This function is particularly useful for people traveling regularly between time zones.
Two Different Time Zones
With ZeTime you can monitor both the length and the quality of your sleep. Detailed reports are available both in the mobile app as well in the watch interface. The sleep tracking of the ZeTime was very accurate, I just wish that that app displayed the actual time in light sleep vs. deep sleep, rather than a colored pie chart.
The software on the ZeTime is very intuitive and allows you to control a lot of useful functions right from your wrist, from reading social networking notifications to checking the weather forecasts, MyKronoz has put a lot of thought into the software and design, creating a enjoyable user experience.
MyKronoz App
When turning ON your ZeTime for the first time, you’ll be prompted to download the ZeTime mobile app on your smartphone in order to proceed to its initial set up. Stating the obvious, but you will need a smartphone to use this watch. The MyKronoz App is available for both Android and IOS.
The ZeTime app allows you to keep track of your daily activity and sleep, set personal goals to stay motivated, select notifications and information that you want to receive right to your wrist.
The app also gives you the ability to customize your ZeTime to suit your lifestyle through a variety pre made watch faces and even gives you the ability to create your own. The selection feels limited at this point, but that is not to say an update won’t happen tomorrow giving the option of many more.
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- Pre Made Watch Faces
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- Build Your Own Watch Face
The entry page of the app is the activity dashboard that keeps track of your daily activity and personal goals.
The ZeTime watch seamlessly connects to my android smartphone by bluetooth. The syncing was always flawless and all notifications came across almost immediately.
Features of the ZeTime
Tech Specs
- Sizes: [R] Regular 44 X 12.8 mm – [P] Petite 39 X 12.6 mm
- Material: stainless steel, sapphire glass
- Watch band: silicone
- Bluetooth: BLE 4.2
- Watch band: [R] 22 mm – [P] 18 mm
- Weight: [R] 90g – [P] 80g
- Battery type: Li-iOn [R] 200 mAh – [P] 180 mAh
- Battery life: up to 30 days (analog mode) / 3 days (smartwatch mode)
- Charging system: contact charging
- Charging time: 90 minutes
- Memory: 10 days
- Display type: TFT Color touchscreen with hole
- Display: [R] 1.22 in / 240*240 px – [P] 1.05 in / 240*240 px
- Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer, optical heart rate
- Operating temperature: -10°C to + 60°C
- Water resistance: 5 ATM
- International warranty: 1 year
- Accessories included: magnetic charger, USB cable
- App: Free Android and IOS app
- iOS OS: 8+
- Android OS: 5.0+
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Final Thoughts
The MyKronoz ZeTime is an incredibly beautiful time piece that is aesthetically pleasing. The hardware and build of the watch feels second to none. While done very well, the software side of things leaves me wanting more watch faces and watch face build options. With a little more programming and installing a GPS within the watch, this would be a must have time piece. Software updates be what they are, almost inevitable and if you can do without a GPS on board, the ZeTime is certainly worth considering.
For more information, visit: www.mykronoz.com MSRP $199
