From Fashion to Fitness, How Smartwatches Are Growing in Popularity in India

Shivanand is a 17-year-old aspirant for defense services, and he lives in Baliapur, a sub-division in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand. He is very health conscious and is dedicated to his fitness regime, much like any other aspirant. He wants to own a sports-centric smartwatch, which is durable, has a customised sports mode, offers accurate health vitals, and a longer battery life. He also wanted an inbuilt GPS but was hoping everything would come at a very competitive price, as a student can't afford expensive models.

The reason to start with this story is only to show how India is fast developing and the youth, even in Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities, are aware of the world, thanks to digitalisation. Shivanand is a young chap and has a demand for differentiated configuration for its smartwatch. These are today's consumers, and they need customised solutions.

Coming to the smartwatch market, in India, it has exponentially grown over the last few years. There are so many big and small brands already existing and working towards fulfilling the consumer's needs. Many promising ones are also starting up every day only to make the market fiercer and price competitive for the benefit of the consumers. The smartwatch's connections to the health and lifestyle aspects are a major factor in addressing the overwhelming demand.

Within the smartwatch category, the Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 3,000 segment is booming the most, and that is because the consumer is evolving and is willing to accept technological advancements that are happening around the world. In India, there is a huge consumer base of adopters who are now willing to move from their standard wristwatch to a smartwatch, and this segment offers a minimum price difference for them.

Today's consumers are well informed. The health freaks are utilizing smartwatches to maximise their fitness regime and fashionistas are complementing them with their attire. Technologies like smartwatches have taken the world by storm.

According to a survey by Cognizant Solutions, these devices are frequently seen as both "technology" and "fashion," which has led to the development of the sphere of "fashionology." Counterpoint Research's latest IoT report showed that smartwatch users grew exponentially.

According to the data, the market grew 173 percent YoY in Q1 2022, driven by multiple product launches and various discount offers. The market is expected to grow much more as the industry produces innovative features while giving the consumers ‘value-for-money' products. There are several unarguable benefits to owning a smartwatch. The style factor is one thing. But having a smartwatch also has several other advantages. Let's break them down.

Check it easy!

Notifications are one of the main reasons to buy a smartwatch. You can check messages without taking your phone out of your pocket or purse and decide which one to ignore or reply to. The

same goes for the never-ending calls you keep getting, which can now be rejected or muted on the smartphone using your smartphone. Other smartwatches let you reply to and reject calls, when you are doing an important meeting. It is invaluable how convenient it is to have them at your wrist and be able to recognise their importance. It saves you time and makes life easier, which is valuable.

Alarms and sedentary reminders

Everyone's busy these days, and we all end up compromising on our health while we are engrossed in our work, taking classes, doing meetings, or even making presentations. A companion who can remind you to drink water or stretch if you have been sitting for a very long time, is a relief in itself. An important meeting is coming up, and the phone is away; you can simply set an alarm on the smartwatch that will remind you to join the meeting.

Meditator on your wrist

Even 5-10 mins of meditation daily can do wonders, but not always do we feel about it, right? Don't worry, you can set an alarm for meditation or just simply end your day with breath training using the smartwatch. It will vibrate you through the breathe-in-breathe-out process to help you with anxiety, anger, fear and sadness.

Keeping a check on health insights

The pandemic has given us enough reasons to keep a tap on your health status, and insights like SpO2 (oxygen level in blood) were a vital sign to look out for. Not promoting these as a medical device, but the smartwatch sure could give out the early signs. Aside from this, there are features like 24x7 heart monitoring that can also notify about increasing bpm, and sleep tracking that provides insight into deep sleep, REM sleep and light sleep. For females, there is menstrual cycle tracking, again a welcome feature.

Elevate your fitness enthusiasm

Have there been times when you wished to engage in an outside activity but lacked the enthusiasm to do so? No need to worry. Your smartwatch has coverage for everything. Pick your sport from various sports modes to get started and stay in shape! The smartwatch records your steps, heart rate, calories burned, and time spent engaging in the activity. You can use this to monitor your health and maintain your motivation to exercise.

Choose a new watch face every day

Undoubtedly, it is fun to have a different watch face every day. Over weekends, you can go around with creative wrist doodles, but for the Monday workplace meeting, you can wear a watch face with a more formal appearance. In addition, you can choose any custom wallpaper you want. With features such as these, one can quickly dawn and reflect their personality with the kind of watch face they use.

Saving your phone's battery

The batteries in smartwatches are robust and last a long time. With a single full charge, your smartwatch can keep you connected for even up to 15 days while you're on a trip. The fact that

you can accomplish most of the tasks such as checking the time, reading messages, viewing notifications, setting alarms, rejecting calls, etc., that you carry out on your phone with the smartwatch is a win-win solution. Thus, you can use your phone for more extended periods, when you actually have to save the battery for later.

Controlling music on your smartphone

Would you prefer taking out the phone whenever you want to change the music or simply do it from your wrist? Obviously, the answer will be the easier way, which is the latter.

Selfie-stick for your memories

The camera control feature in the smartwatch performs as a shutter button for you. Place the smartphone in a position that gives you the best angle. Thanks to the camera control feature, it can be far from your reach now, and you can still click those incredible selfies and groupfies, and also record videos for yourself.

Quick calls on the go

There are calls you would want to go longer, and there are calls you want to reject. What about the ones you would pick up for a quick conversation? The Bluetooth calling feature lets you make quick calls using your smartwatch, which can come in handy.

The advantages are endless, and the growing demand induced due to these benefits is leading to the launch of new products and services daily. The future of technology is already here, and the next logical step would be to combine smartwatches with the Internet of Things to increase productivity and advance these devices. We saw the demand for smartwatches soar as people sought to combine their work and personal lives and keep track of their days. Eventually, companies would experience a rise in demand for such devices as people sought to make their daily routines more joyful.

The author is the CEO of Dizo India.

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