A touchscreen smart watch with GPS for $60 is possible

Huami is back with a new smart watch that undercuts the competition even more than its previous watch. Huami is perhaps best known for development fitness tracking wristbands for Xiaomi, but it has its own brand of smartwatches called Amazfit as well. The original Amazfit Pace sells for 799 yuan or about $117. The new AmazfitBip is just 399 yuan, which is less than $60.

From a design perspective, the AmazfitBip clearly took some inspiration from the Pebble Time. Instead of buttons on the side, though, there is a scroll wheel and the watch has a touchscreen. It uses a low-powered LCD like the Pebble, allowing it to always display the time and giving it good visibility in sunlight. Huami also says the watch’s battery can last up to 45 days.

The Bip advertising is focused on fitness, giving Huami a clear target demographic for this device. The Pace was meant to be a more general-purpose smart watch, although both appear to accomplish this task. The Pace is also more stylish with its round screen compared with the Bip’s rectangular look.

A smart watch for $60 would be a good enough value for many consumers but the Bip takes things a little further. It has a GPS and a heart-rate monitor built into it, and a water-resistance rating of IP68. These are features usually reserved for more premium devices.

Quality smart watches with GPS are especially hard to come by at this price point, so Huami appears to be building itself up as the Xiaomi of smart watches. Like Xiaomi, though, that likely means most of its products will be limited to China for the foreseeable future.