Out of the twelve years of writing on various media, I was writing mainly about watches for nine years. Thanks to that, I was able to meet most of the watches that landed to the Korean market and also attended the annual watch fair in Switzerland since 2012 to see the latest trends of the watch industry first. I probably know more about watches than others. Sometimes people would call me the ‘watch expert’, but to be honest, I am not even capable of repairing the simplest issue. I still have a long way to go to become a genuine ‘expert’, but with confidence I can say that I worked hard as a ‘columnist’ to deliver the knowledge of those ‘experts’ in an easy way to the public.

Smart watches?

The mainstream of modern watches are definitely wrist watches. Pocket watches and table clocks have long become collector’s items. Then in the 21st century came the smart watches. Although not powerful enough to replace traditional wrist watches, smart watches successfully became a mainstream. Frankly speaking, as a lover of traditional watches, I did not welcome this phenomenon. Because I thought that when it comes to high-end watches, aesthetics is more important than functionalities. I couldn’t help but doubt the taste of people who bought Apple Watch, due to its ‘IT Nerd-ish’ design and I also wasn’t fond of the dial display of other Android-based smart watches including Samsung Galaxy Gear that resembled the display of a mobile phone. It felt like the manufacturers just released the products without much thinking about the factors that attracted watch lovers. That’s why I thought that those ‘IT guys are just being sassy’. My indifference to smart watches led to my ignorance.

Smart devices that I’ve used before

I never thought of buying a smart watch for myself because I just didn’t want to use one. But I did use similar types of smart devices twice. The first one was the Xiaomi Mi Band received as a gift from a friend. I admit that the device had a couple of novel functions, but the absence of a display made it a bit confusing to use, and moreover the device looked like the key you forgot to return to the bathhouse. The second device was the e-Strap released by Montblanc. It was a set of a nato strap that can be connected to the watch and a smart device the size of a finger that could be additionally attached to the gadget. As the strap and watch are separate, the device keeps the exterior of a watch and also looks high-end as a luxurious brand should be. I managed to wear the device for quite a while but then naturally wore it less as the charging was tiresome and it was uncomfortable to wear it with shirts.

My first experience of a smart watch

It was only a month’s time, but Kronaby Apex was the first smart watch I have ever experienced properly. My first impression of the watch was that it was the closest to a traditional watch out of all the smart watches encountered before. Or to be precise, it was no different from the traditional watch in terms of the exterior. This is why I didn’t resist trying it out. I was also surprised that the device did not copy the design of well-known Swiss watches. In fact, even the Swiss watch industry refers to the designs of existing watches when designing new models. This is because already too many watches have emerged over a long period of time which makes it difficult even for watch brands to design a completely new model. However, Kronaby’s diverse features such as the smooth connection to the rug by splitting the flank of the case to make it look thin, the side of the bezel that takes up half of the thickness of the case, the crown and pusher located between the bezel and the case, and the thickness of the bezel that looks substantially thin when seen from the front, are all unique features that were not to be found in other brands. On top of that, the dome glass made of sapphire crystal, the Arabic numeral index of the dial, the minute track of the fringe, the rug that applied the polishing and satin brush by creating a bevel and the subdial placed at six of the dial demonstrates the typical exterior of a Swiss watch. This is the kind of design traditional watch lovers like. Looking familiar but full of new and natural elements.

When looking at Kronaby’s design, the device can be considered a field watch. One of the most popular field watches are Rolex Explorer and Khaki Field from Hamilton. If you know both watches, you would easily recognize that both designs share a similar build. Functionally, both watches also have the characteristics of a field watch. High visibility, luminous index and hands, 100m waterproof case and scratch resistant sapphire crystal glass are those elements. The design of the matched strap has also recently become popular among tool watch enthusiasts. This demonstrates the hard work Kronaby has made to satisfy traditional watch users. The finishing of the case was not very satisfying but still moderate, considering the price of the watch. It’s because the watch does not fall behind other Swiss watches in the same price category. 

Smart functions

I installed Kronaby’s application on my phone after download. Synchronization was done moving all hands to twelve of the dial. And then if you would press the start button, the hands will move according to the time of the mobile phone and all functions will be set. There is a main and subdial, and time and other functions will appear when pressing the crown. The daily workout goal percentage can be displayed on the main dial, or the date, second time and stop watch(chronograph) and timer(countdown) can be selected too. The subdial will show the daily workout goal percentage and the second time. Other smart watches have more diverse functions such as checking text messages and incoming calls, but the digital display cannot be elegant. But Kronaby’s analogue mechanism provides its users pleasure beyond functionality. The pusher is soft enough to be compared with the pusher of a high-end watch brand and the ticking of the hands when running the chronograph function is charming too. It is also interesting that from one minute after measuring the time, the hands are separated and the hour hand shows the minutes and the minute hand the seconds.
 
The watch is run on quartz movement and the embedded battery enables the smart functions to be realized. Therefore, the watch does not require additional charging devices. Using the smart functions did not affect the time display and continuously playing with the stop watch functions did not lead to substantial errors. Probably because the time of the mobile phone is received and displayed through a radio controlling method. 

Areas for improvement

The luminous effect of the watch was the most disappointing part. The first couple of days, I thought that the index and hands were not applied with luminous paint. I realized a weak light glow for the first time when I went down to the garage on a very sunny day. The paint was applied so thinly that it lost its function in 1 minute after 5 minutes of direct sunlight. It had the worst luminous effect among all the watches I have tried. Other than that, there are no more comments to make as the watch itself was made quite moderately. Just one more thing. Considering better usability, it would be better if the functions of the main dial could be changed just by pressing the crown a little longer. Because it is tiresome to always turn on the phone to switch functions.