The Romanian smartwatch startup Vector Watch has been acquired by Fitbit, the global was an able giant for health and fitness devices. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.
“Today, we are happy to announce that the Vector Watch team and our software platform are joining Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market! We believe this is an important milestone as a moment when we will start building other new and amazing products, features and experiences, incorporating our unique technology and knowhow with Fitbit’s experience and global community,” announced the Vector Watch team on their website.
According to the same announcement, Vector Watch will maintain its functionalities and features. However, new product features (software and hardware) will not be added.
The story of Vector Watches begins only a year ago, in October 2015, when the watch was released to the market. The hallmark of this smartwatch was its 30-day battery life, as well as its customizable watch-faces and dedicated streams. According to the website, this company designs and develops wearable technology to simplify lifestyles, delivering “the highest quality of craftsmanship, impeccable design and a unique user experience”.
As reported by TechCrunch, Vector Watch is a smartwatch with an e-ink LCD screen — broke the mold with a 30-day battery life and a smartphone control app which worked across iOS, Android and Windows phones. It also created its own smartwatch operating system, and released an API to developers, allowing them to create their own apps and faces for the watch. The watches themselves looked fantastic and the LCD screen even mimicked a real watch screen from a short distance. With a fully stainless steel case, hardened mineral glass and 50m water resistance, this was a very nice piece of kit
The company was founded in 2013, and since the very beginnings this start-up raised USD 5 million from a group of investors (USD 2 million), 3TS Catalyst Romania (USD 1.6 million), alongside individual private equity funds.
Whereas to Fitbit, this is not their first acquisition. Only in November last year, this global wearable giant acquired a pioneer in the smart watch space Pebble Technology Corp. According to Bloomberg, this deal would allow Fitbit to better compete with Apple.
Fitbit is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California, known for its products of the same name, which are activity trackers, wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics involved in fitness. Their journey began in 2007 when the founders Eric N. Friedman and James Park realized that sensors and wireless technology had advanced to a point where they could bring amazing experiences to fitness and health.
