First 'fully Chinese' smartwatch aims to fill gap left by Google's Android Wear

A Beijing-based start-up has launched what it says is the only smartwatch that runs on a dedicated operating system apart from the Apple Watch.

The Chinese-language smartwatch operating system - said to be a first - lets users control not only their watches, but also other connected home appliances, by using voice commands in Mandarin Chinese.

Users of the Ticwatch have to say “Ni Hao, Wen Wen” to wake up the device, and according to an on-site demonstration, can find results by asking the watch in Chinese, for instance, “What is the closest dumpling restaurant with free wireless internet?”.

Other functions can also be controlled by touching the screen, sliding a side sensor pad, or shaking the device.

“It’s not difficult nowadays to make a smartwatch. You can just go to Shenzhen and find contractors willing to take your order for watches that may look different on the surface, but are essentially the same inside,” Chumen Wenwen chief executive Li Zhifei told reporters at a launch event in Beijing.

“And they don’t work well because they all have the Android Wear OS beneath them and aren’t made with the hardware in mind,” said the former research scientist at Google.