A classic timepiece with smart frills

The Titan JUXT is an endearing mix of good looks and smart features

It is difficult being a geek and a timepiece connoisseur at the same time. The geek in you pushes you to get a smartwatch, but the connoisseur balks at the gear on offer. And, it seems the twain shall never meet.

Then, I came face to face with the Titan JUXT, Tata's maiden attempt at a smartwatch, in collaboration with HP. Analogue traditional watch. Check. Calf leather strap. Check. Metal watch case. Check. Notifications alert. Check.

I quickly put the watch to charge (the Titan JUXT Stainless, at Rs 15,995, was in for review; Titan offers two more higher-priced versions - Rose Gold and Titanium), downloaded the app and signed up for an account. A quick pairing over Bluetooth and I was set. It asked for various permissions and I was given the option of turning on or off certain notifications. One can also set the intensity of vibration, a time frame to silence watch notifications and an activity goal - the number of steps one has to walk. A caveat: the watch doesn't have GPS and neither does it use the module on the phone, so one only gets the number of steps, not the distance walked. Serious runners, thus, shouldn't let go of their GPS watches for this one.

After a full charge of the JUXT, I was set to take on the day. The best thing about the JUXT is that the analogue watch functions independent of the three-line OLED display; so even if the charge of the "smart" part of the watch is out of charge, it stays a classic time-keeper. Thus, the good-looking and heavy metal case sports two buttons on either side of the crown, to control the smart functions. It takes a bit getting used to the combination of switches, but once set, it's easy.

Not only was I getting vibration alerts on my wrist, after a day's use I was able to identify what type of alert it was - based on the short and long pulses. But for that you need to memorise those combinations from the manual. Also, the screen didn't light up as soon as the notification came (but only after I flicked my wrist to look at it a relief during meetings; many a time I've been embarrassed by a WhatsApp forward being displayed on the smartwatch).

The app also gives one access to a world clock, which is of great help when you're travelling across time zones. It also displays the percentage of charge left on the watch. The charge stays for long - after a full charge I used the watch for three days (with social media and WhatsApp notifications off) and still had 65 per cent of charge left.

The watch has radium-coated numerals and hands, so one could tell the time in the dark without waking up the OLED screen. But reading a text or email header on the tiny screen is arduous, given the amount of scrolling one needs to perform with the buttons. Also, when the two hands are placed close together on the OLED display, it kind of covers it up.

Another issue I faced was the watch getting disconnected from the app whenever the charge of the phone ran out (and by default the battery saving functions switched off Bluetooth). Getting the watch to pair again wasn't very smooth. Also, the data from the app can't be imported into any third-party app.

But most of these niggles be fixed with a software update. The burning question is would I buy it? The answer is yes; that's because this is a classic analogue timepiece with some smart functions. It lets me know of things I need to know without taking my phone out of my pocket; it shows me the time when I need it, tells me how many steps I have walked, and most importantly, it looks good.