Swatch Touch Zero One Smartwatch for Beach Volleyball Launched

With Apple rumoured to announce its entry into the smartwatch arena, its would be competition is scurrying to get its act in order - including one of the most famous watchmakers in world, Swatch.

We've seen Pebble Technology take to crowd-funding for the second time for its Pebble Time smartwatch that's seen all Kickstarter records broken and now Swatch is entering the fray with its first mass-produced smartwatch, the Swatch Touch Zero One. It features a curved monochrome touchscreen and built-in backlight. The touchscreen supports taps and side-swipes to manage six timing functions.

In conjunction with the Swatch Touch Zero One app which we assume is for for iOS and Android, it will act like a fitness tracker for sports, beach volleyball in particular. Swatch happens to be the title sponsor of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. You can set fitness goals using its virtual coach feature as well.

With a generous display area and touchscreen, the Swatch Touch Zero One lets users check the number of times they've hit the ball in a game across four different kinds of hits ranging from attack hits to high fives as well as measuring the strength of a hit and rating the player on a scale of 0 to 100.

Currently there's no information on notifications for calls, alarms or emails it appears that the Swatch Touch Zero One is essentially a fitness tracker. Whether it connects via near-field communication (NFC) or Bluetooth remains to be seen. Nonetheless the company claims that the battery on the Touch Zero One will last for "months and months".