Most people think the smartwatch trend started in 2015 when Apple unveiled the first-generation Apple Watch but did you know that the first smartwatch was the Japanese Seiko Ruputer, released in 1998?
Regardless of the origin of smartwatches, they have become a mainstay in today’s digitally-focused consumer economy. Smartwatches can pair with compatible smartphone devices and provide a whole host of features, from making calls, texts, monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, O2 levels, and more.
The Atria is a new smartwatch is designed and manufactured by Austrian company FitTrack. The Atria is a multipurpose smartwatch that is specifically designed for fitness tracking applications.
There are a lot of fitness tracking smartwatches out there such as FitBit and Google Fit, so what makes the Atria deserving of consideration? We are going to take a good hard look at the FitTrack Atria and talk about its features, performance, pros, cons, and overall cost. Let’s take a dive into the world of fitness tracking smartwatches.
Overview: FitTrack Atria
The Atria is a multipurpose smartphone integrated smartwatch that is designed for fitness tracking purposes, as well as basic smartphone capabilities. The Atria features a 1.2” touchscreen display that feeds you push, text, and calendar notifications, and lets you monitor your vitals. The watch has 7 different sports mode for tracking O2 levels, heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and more. It also has a dedicated sleep tracking mode that monitors light, deep, and REM sleep so you can make sure you are getting the optimal amount and quality of sleep.
The watch also sends all recorded data to the companion smartphone app so you can monitor your progress over time. You can track calories burnt, your resting heart rate, and optimize your workout plans to meet your predefined fitness goals.
Advantages
- 7 different sports tracking modes
- Dedicated sleep cycle tracker
- Integrate heart rate, calorie burn, and cardio fitness monitor so you can optimize your workout routines.
- Enables text, calendar, and push notifications from phone
- Extremely long 7-day battery life per charge
- Android 5.0 and Apple iOS 10.0 compatible
- 6 customizable digital watch faces to suit your individual style
- Plays music
- Can take pictures
Disadvantages
- Cannot make calls/send texts from watch face
- Cannot download other apps from an app store
- Companion app can be confusing to navigate
Who Makes FitTrack Atria?
The Atria is made by FitTrack, an Austrian company founded in 2013 and co-founded by Nicolas Festl (CEO), Maximilian Maurer (CFO), and Bernhard Hackl (CTO). The company has recently reached a significant milestone and has achieved over 120,000 daily users of its products. FitTrack is also known for its Smart Body BMI Scale, a smart scale that is capable of making over 17 biometric measurements, including weight, body fat percentage, protein count, body temperature, and more.
FitTrack has also recently unveiled its plans for an AI-driven nutrition app called Track Eats that will let users monitor their daily diet and craft a meal plan to meet their fitness goals.
According to their website, FitTrack’s stated mission goal is to “increase everyone’s insight and gain a deeper understanding of one’s own body as we take weight measuring on a whole new level.” FitTrack recognizes that one-size-fits-all approaches to fitness do not work, which is why they created a line of powerful smart devices that help you on your own unique path to health. They also are involved in their community and give back a portion of their proceeds to engage diverse leaders and volunteers that foster health and physical activities in children, youth, and schools.
How Does the Atria Work?
The Atria uses a series of electric sensors to monitor changes in bodily activity. The changes in electric resistance due to bodily phenomena are calculated and fed into validated equations to produce biological measurements. This so-called “Bioelectric Impedance Analysis” (BIA) is used to track heart rate, blood pressure, calorie burn, and more. All of this data is fed into and recorded by the companion app which lets you browse and search measurement categories.
The Atria also tracks your sleep by monitoring body movement while sleeping. Their proprietary software translates those movements into periods of sleep and wake. Doing so allows the watch to monitor the duration of your sleep cycles to see if they are lining up with optimal light, deep, and REM sleep patterns. This feature allows people with sleep disorders and general sleep disruption to record sleep patterns and have them analyzed in a lab, without having to sit for lengthy sleep studies in the lab.
The Atria also features an extremely efficient lithium-ion battery. A single charge can last you a full 7 days without losing a single second of data tracking. The battery charges on a normal USB-C cable and can reach a full charge in just a few hours.
There are some downsides though. You cannot make calls or send texts from the watch itself, so if you need to return a message or email, you’ll have to pull out your phone. If you are just using the watch to track your fitness, then this is not a big deal, but it can be a con for those who want more dedicated smartphone features in their smartwatch.
Where to Buy and Cost
Currently, the Atria is only available from FitTrack’s official website, though they say they have plans to allow sales on third party online retailers soon. The Atria is currently available for $95.00 or $122.00 with the lifetime warranty guarantee.
FitTrack Atria: Is It Worth It?
Our answer is a resounding yes. The FitTrack Atria is an exceedingly competent fitness tracker smartwatch that is available for an extremely reasonable price. The measurements are precise, and the sleep tracking mode is a unique feature that distinguishes it from other smartwatches. The companion smartphone app is easy enough to use, even if it has some questionable design choices.