Kronaby smartwatch in the Review: Swedish understatement

April 14, 2020

Smartwatches lack the noble flair of analog watches. They also have to be constantly on the charger. Hybrid smartwatches promise an alternative. These offer a lot of additional functions even without a display and have a very long battery life. For this Review, we tried the concept of the Swedish manufacturer Kronaby and revealed how the smart piece of jewelry performs in practice.

Design and workmanship

The Kronaby hybrid watch arrives at the customer in a classy packaging: the lid of the watch box is covered with fabric and the hybrid watch rests on a cushion that is also covered. When you remove the watch, the high-quality impression continues: the watch is surprisingly heavy; She weighs 175 grams. In addition, it is protected all around by foil. Our Swedish Review model is called Sekel – in German century, has a silver case and a silver metal bracelet with a folding clasp.

Even at second glance, the Kronaby watch does not show the smart interior. The dial and hands are completely analog, only the shape of the crown could make professionals wonder. Otherwise, the watch looks like an analog chronograph with two control buttons. The white, luminescent numerals and hands are clearly visible on the black dial. Overall, the Swedish manufacturer relies on a classy, ​​tidy and modern overall picture. The Kronaby is very high quality; the design is successful. The watch is waterproof and can withstand short dives without damage.

The battery life is also limited with this smartwatch, but up to two years; if this is true, Kronaby sets new standards. After two years, the watch must be serviced to replace the battery. The cost of a change is between 10 and 20 euros.

Functions

The three control buttons of the watch can be used by the user with the free app assign functions individually. Before that, you have to connect your smartphone and watch via Bluetooth. This works easily and takes less than two minutes. A small auxiliary dial shows – depending on the setting – either a second time zone or serves as a pedometer. To do this, you store a step goal in the app, and the watch shows the percentage of fulfillment at the push of a button.

The largest button, the crown, can also be assigned a second time zone or step monitoring. The clock then shows the values ​​on the main dial. The smartwatch also enables the functions timer, stopwatch and date display to be used. The app explains how it works in a short, illustrated manual. This is matched to every point in the menu, so that operation does not cause any problems. Even long pages in a digital manual are no longer necessary. There is also the option of storing three contacts. The watch then signals their calls and messages with a vibration alarm. If you misplace your watch, the last known position of the smartwatch is also displayed in the app.

There are a total of seven functions available for assigning the two smaller buttons, the so-called push buttons: Find phone, music control, camera remote control, activate mute, save GPS position, send position and one IFTTT campaign trigger. The exact functionality is explained with a short animation and so using the well-designed app is really fun.

App functions

variants

Overall, the manufacturer has four different design variants with similar technical properties on offer. Each individual variant is available in different colors and with different bracelets.

Kronaby Sekel A1000-0720

Kronaby Review model

Kronaby Sekel A1000-0713

Kronaby

Kronaby Sekel A1000-0719

Kronaby

Kronaby Sekel A1000-0556

Kronaby

Kronaby

Kronaby

Conclusion

The Kronaby hybrid watch is a very beautiful piece of jewelry. Especially fans of classic watches will get their money's worth with the high-quality watch. The metal bracelet is a matter of taste, but there are enough alternative designs available. Overall, we like the Review model. Without the disadvantages of a full-display smartwatch, the hybrid watch offers far more functions than any analog watch. The clock and app are easy to use. We liked the well-designed software better than the Fossil models with similar features.

However, due to the lack of a display, the Kronaby cannot compete with the functionality of a full-fledged smartwatch. If you want to read your SMS directly from the watch, you'd better take a look at a model like the Skagen Falster. If you mainly need a fitness tracker, you should use a model with GPS and heart rate monitoring, such as the Huawei Watch 2.

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