Omate Comes Back To Life With The Rise

Hello from the other side. Omate, which made news a few years ago with a standalone smartwatch that aimed to give Android a run for its money, is back with the Rise, a “standalone smartwatch” that runs Android 5.1 and needs no phone.

The Rise is running in a 48 hour crowdfunding campaign and you can get a watch for $199 during the early bird period. The watch has a 1.3-inch 360×360 pixel display and a nice 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooh radio. It runs a 1.2GHZ ARM Cortex A7 with Android Lolipop installed. It’s also water resistant to 1 ATM.

Is this the watch to beat the rest? If you’re looking for a standalone smartwatch that needs to phone to control it, this might be a good alternative. While there’s no current info on the battery life or control methods, it looks like a solid piece of kit and might be fun for folks who want to make a call from their wrist.

The watch also tracks your fitness and lets you grab emails and web pages on the go. You can swap out the straps as well.

The Rise should appear at CES in January and then ship in March. Now they just have to make an Edition version out of solid diamond and we’ll be in business.