Reviewed by Daniel Lim on Monday, 04 Dec 2006

Watch with a Twist of "Blue" Treatment

Watch with a Twist of "Blue" Treatment

Have you ever been in an awkward situation where your phone would suddenly ring in the middle of a meeting or while you were watching a movie? For most people, the immediate response would be to reject the call there and then, but what if you were expecting an important call and needed to know who just called without whipping out your mobile phone and be the annoyance to everyone. Well, thanks to Bluetooth technology and a clever partnership between Sony Ericsson and Fossil, you now have a product that can do just that.

The Magical watch

Watches with Bluetooth technology might sound look like an exotic inventions that you will only see in James Bond flicks, but in truth, brands such as Citizen, Seiko, Chronotech and Fossil have all been selling these products for months now. Sony Ericsson however, is new to the fray but they’ve made the right decision by partnering with Fossil and the end result is the handsome looking MBW-100.

As expected of Sony Ericsson, the MBW-100 was tastefully designed to appeal to executives. High quality stainless steel gives the watch a classy and timeless look while the face is manufactured from a combination of mineral crystal and antiglare coating that is also scratch resistant. Right below the analog face is a small LCD panel that displays information such as numbers (Caller ID information), names and notification of new messages when paired. It even allows incoming calls to be rejected, which means you no longer have to scramble for your mobile phone again – that’s if you remained connected to the MBW-100.

Trinity at work

While the MBW-100 was designed to work primarily with Sony Ericsson phones, its non-proprietary Bluetooth technology means it should work with other Bluetooth handsets as well – though you probably have to pair the MBW-100 using the conventional passkey authentication method.

When put to the test with a K800i and a HBH-IV835 Bluetooth headset, the MBW-100 was able to instantly recognize both the handset and headset to configure itself as the go-between. The result was a seamless circle of Bluetooth connections for telecommunication that worked flawlessly with the MBW-100 responsible for call alerts and Caller ID; the K800i for transmission; and the Bluetooth headset as earpiece and mouthpiece.

When the K800i was replaced by a W950i WALKMAN phone, we were able to control the music playback function using the middle button of the watch. Pressing the button once will play or pause the music while a pressing and holding will bring up the next track. For some strange reasons however, there is no back button on the watch. Incidentally, we also discovered that the W950i does not support new message notification on the MBW-100, which could be because of differing versions of operating systems.

Final thoughts

The best thing about the MBW-100 is that it’s not only a fully functional watch that’s stylish to be worn on your wrist but also a proper Bluetooth device that offers you wireless convenience while improving your mannerism at the same time. It sure didn’t take long for it to grow on us as we soon found ourselves checking it repeatedly throughout a typical work day for time, incoming calls and messages. It proved most handy whenever we needed to reject a call during meetings; “checking” the time is just more respectful to the presenter and at formal roundtable than battling with a mobile phone.

Quite simply, the multifaceted MBW-100 is the Christmas gift you should get for yourself if you want style and technology working merrily for you.

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Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch

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