Nixon The Mission: A Connected Watch for Board Sports
Nixon is right where we (impatiently) expected it to be, launching its smartwatch dedicated to board sports (surfing, skiing and snowboarding).
While smartwatches don’t appeal to me for “city” wear, their applications are nonetheless interesting in sport—and for now, that’s the only credit I’m willing to give them.
Yet, to my knowledge, there wasn’t a connected watch truly suited to extreme sports—or at the very least, to board sports. It was already hard to find a connected watch that was water-resistant to splashes, so imagine the party when Nixon announces 10 ATM (100 metres… See my article again on watch water resistance)!
Nixon—whose watches adorn almost every wrist that throws a shaka (hang loose) faster than its own shadow—launches The Mission.
You’ve guessed it: the Nixon Mission is a connected watch built for board sports.
The watch is equipped with Android Wear technology. Put simply, Android Wear is an operating system (OS) developed by Google and offered to smartwatch manufacturers—like Windows being offered to computer brands. There’s no need to develop your own operating system: the watch uses the Android environment and adds the building blocks it needs to deliver a product aligned with the needs of its customers.
Nixon has paired the Android Wear environment with Surfline and Snocountry, two essential sources for surfing and the mountains, to deliver surf and snow conditions to the wearer—directly on the wrist.
A few connected features:
- Google Fit activity tracking
- Voice search
- Gesture-based music control
- Surf and snow conditions
- Statistical session tracking (Trace technology)
- GPS, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, compass, etc.
Beyond water resistance, the ultra-tough 48 mm polycarbonate case topped with a 316L steel bezel, along with Corning Gorilla glass, should easily withstand the most extreme use.
And since riders are style-conscious, it’s even possible to customise the watch with a choice of 20 straps and 15 bezels—and you can even engrave the caseback with a “Luv Mum”, for example.
