WHO, WHAT, WEARABLE

Withings Steel HR

Few developers make more ­elegantly designed smartwatches than French wearable firm Withings, which was ­acquired by Nokia last ­summer. The brand’s latest wearable, the Steel HR, ­marries the classic good looks of its signature Activité watch with basic notifier ­functionality and activity tracking that boasts a high-tech heart rate monitor (hence the HR in the watch’s name). The watch also keeps tabs on sleep duration and quality, and can track the duration and intensity of more than 10 different fitness activities.

What we liked: The watch face features a tiny, circular digital display that gives users info they really need: the name of the person texting/calling, how many calories the wearer has burned, heart rate, and how much time is left on that morning run. But it’s also easy to ignore, considering how handsome the actual analog watch face is.

What we didn’t like: We wish the watch came packaged with a leather wristband along with the sporty silicone band it’s anchored to; that would make the Steel HR more versatile. The Barenia leather band that pairs with the watch sells separately on withings.com for a not-exactly-cheap $80.

Best feature: The Steel HR is a fitness tracker that would also look smart with a three-piece suit—an altogether charming (and increasingly rare) combination in the wearables category. ($179.95; withings.com) 

 

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Reliable Electronic Product Sales

Thinking about adding digital tablets to your brand’s bag of sales tools? Newport Beach, Calif.–based GemFind, which creates digital products specifically for the jewelry industry, has partnered with marketing/advertising agency Harmon Group to create a slick new system for selling jewelry on an iPad. Called REPS (Reliable Electronic Product Sales), the easy-to-use tablet tool streamlines the sales process, simplifies customer relationship management by collecting consumer data that can be easily accessed, and can even increase order accuracy. “GemFind strives to be on the cutting edge of technology for the jewelry industry, and this new partnership with Harmon Group fits nicely with our lineup of jewelry apps and services,” says GemFind president Alex Fetanat. ($799 one-time onboarding fee—with access to training, online instructions, and IT support—then $59/month user licensing fee; gemfind.com)