The best of CES – wearables

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Vegas, the wearables space dominated many of the big brand announcements.

We have to admit, not every new device announced has exactly wowed us. More often than not we’ve seen competing companies match each other in terms of offering or surge slightly ahead. However, there has been some real cutting edge tech on show so we’ve put together a round-up of the best wearable devices that we’ve come across this year.

SMARTWATCHES:

Casio Outdoor Smart Watch

With its experience and heritage in building watches for all kinds of environment around the world, the Outdoor Smart Watch from Casio is rugged. Really rugged. The Android Wear smartwatch is waterproof to 50 metres and built to a military standard.

It has an altimeter, barometer, GPS, and even Wi-Fi to ensure you’re always synced. The feature we liked the most though is its monochrome LCD mode able to run without charge for a month.

FITNESS TRACKERS:

Fitbit Blaze

Featuring the company’s first colour screen and a healthy choice of workout modes for alternative health readings, the Fitbit Blaze is half the price of the Apple Watch Sport at $199. Choose ‘Yoga’, ‘Spinning’ or ‘Cycling’ to ensure you’re tracking the right workouts too.

Interestingly though, after announcing the launch of the Blaze Fitbit’s stock fell more than 18%. It seems the investors aren’t as excited as us.

The new tracker will begin at $99.99.

CLOTHING:

Hexoskin Smart Shirt

This is the company’s second attempt and with the inclusion of Bluetooth users can now link up with third party platforms and wearables. The result? Mire accurate recordings of your heart rate and respiration, as well as details about steps, routes and other running and cycling metrics.

JEWELLERY:

Misfit Ray

In the company’s first product launch since being acquired by Fossil late last year, Misfit debuted Ray, a new tracker aimed at the more fashion conscious fitness freaks. Worn as a bracelet or necklace, the Misfit Ray has a 3-axis accelerometer, a vibration motor that reminds you to get moving and comes in Rose Gold and Carbon Black. Ray users can also monitor sleep, steps and different activities like Yoga, as well as alerting them to incoming calls and texts.