Nixon Unveils The Mission, An Android Wear Watch For Extreme Sports

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It was starting to get quiet in the world of Android Wear and smartwatches in general for a while, but the last few days have brought about a flurry of new announcements and devices headed our way. Fossil introduced its two new models; Casio gave us the Smart Outdoor Watch; Michael Kors announced a hideous Access collection; and Nixon unveiled The Mission, a rugged Android Wear powered smartwatch built for surfers, snowboarders, and various athletic daredevils, and is also the first to be running some new hardware underneath.

Courtesy of Nixon
Courtesy of Nixon

The outer design of the watch will of course be judged by each consumer, but the watch is definitely thick and has an overall bulk to give it the toughness Nixon is touting. That 48mm case is not subtle and is a combination of polycarbonate and stainless steel. The screen is AMOLED, guarded by Gorilla Glass and a 316L surgical grade stainless steel raised bezel. Nixon is claiming that The Mission has the highest waterproof rating of any of its competitors and is able to be submerged up to 330 feet (110 meters). This is not the first smartwatch form the California-based company but its previous efforts are… well… let’s just put those behind us. The new model is a huge step forward in looks, function, build, and customer focus. The watch will of course come with the stock Android Wear OS but will have a number of included applications. The NIXON MISSION APP shows real-time surf and snow conditions, while the NIXON TRACE APP pairs with Trace technology and allows users to track sessions and easily view stats during activity.

As already mentioned, The Mission is packing a little surprise inside. That being a brand new chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon Wear 2100 Processor. Designed specifically for wearables, the 2100 is more powerful, and is 25% more efficient than the Snapdragon 400 and 410 that is found in all other Android Wear watches. It comes in two flavors: Connected (with 4G/LTE and 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi); and Tethered (only Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). It is also more compact (30% smaller) than the 400 series chip although you would never guess that by looking at the girth of The Mission.

Courtesy of Qualcommm
Courtesy of Qualcommm

 

Pricing and availability for The Mission has yet to be announced but there will be plenty of customization options in the form of over 20 band options and over 15 bezel choices, including: Cerakote, stainless steel, gunmetal,  and gold. Even with all those options in mind, however, Nixon has not mentioned a women’s model, which is unfortunate for a number of reasons. Battery size and life is also still a big question mark, but Nixon is saying that the new chipset significantly helps in that department.

[button link=”http://www.nixon.com/us/en/mens-smart” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Nixon[/button]
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