Talk to the wrist when the Echo’s not listening.
Martian joined the watch-that-is-also-a-smartwatch movement with their mVoice line, and recently added Alexa support. A quick tap of the top button summons Siri, while a press-and-hold gives you access to the full Alexa service right from your wrist.
Obviously, this is for people already comfortable and happy in the Alexa ecosystem, where I’ve found myself more and more as of late. While the OLED notification bar looks great, Martian isn’t taking the Withings route of making a minimal smart timepiece. The mVoice line is big and utilitarian, and white accent stitching has never looked good on a black watch strap.
It’s great that there’s a real watch underneath Martian’s smart interface, that keeps ticking even when the OLED screen and speaker run out of juice. Charging is a simple Micro USB affair, with no ecosystem of magnetic cradles to have to sort through. Smartwatch features like customizable vibration patterns, phone leash, remote camera control, and the ability to take calls are also present and accounted for.
I’ve already gotten more use out of mVoice than I did any of the features of my quickly-Ebay’d Apple Watch, and I expect increased returns as Alexa assimilates more of my Internet of things.