The original fitness technology company is set to make waves in a space that has exploded since its inception almost 40 years ago. With the announcement of the M600 smart watch, Polar is bringing to market what they hope will be the first smartwatch that truly captures the interest of the fitness world.
While Polar may not have been top-of-mind for the average consumer as far as fitness technology brands go over the last few years, they have been the go-to provider for heart rate monitors and tracking systems for group fitness as well as team sports. The US Women’s National Team trained with Polar for five years before the 2015 World Cup, which they won.
Polar, which launched in 1977 with a patent for fingertip heart rate monitoring, created the first wireless heart rate monitor and has been innovating in sports and fitness ever since. In 2007, Polar created the first fitness tracker that featured an avatar character that shifted as you moved. “At the time, the market understood step counters, but activity tracking was too far ahead of the market,” explained Marco Suvilaakso, Global Product Director at Polar. It wasn’t until Nike introduced the Fuelband in 2012 that the market became educated on activity tracking through body movement.
As technology companies began to build smart watches that featured fitness tracking capabilities, Polar decided to develop a smartwatch that featured a fitness tracking first, but also featured the smart capabilities such as voice control, calendar notifications, read and reply to texts, and all the other uses to keep up with your connected life.
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With Polar’s history in heart rate monitor technology, the Polar M600 boasts one of the most reliable wrist-based heart rate measurements. It utilizes Polar’s proprietary optical heart rate technology to provide wrist-based heart rate monitoring through a 6-LED solution. In addition to measuring your heart rate, the Polar Flow app analyzes your heart rate and gives you, in layman terms, a description of what those measurements mean so that you can be sure you are getting the highest quality training.
Sleep tracking was also an important element in developing the smartwatch. Suvilaakso said that to get a full fitness picture, you must know the quality of your sleep. With that in mind, the battery life was built to last 48 hours (24 hours when paired with an iOS device) and can be fully charged in 30-90 minutes via a standard USB cable. Sleep data, along with more in-depth insights into your fitness and progress, can also be viewed in Polar Flow.
When Suvilaakso demonstrated the Polar M600 for me, I was blown away by the Polar Coaching feature that’s integrated into the watch. In conjunction with Polar Flow, the M600 will give you a training program for a particular event. Simply select the date of your event, the goal you want to hit and answer a few questions to determine your current fitness level and how many days a week you want to train and a personalized training program is developed. Your program is automatically adjusted based on performance. So if you are sticking to your training regimen and beating the goals in place, the program will adapt accordingly. Similarly, if you’ve missed a few days, your program will adjust so you can continue to train at a pace that will allow you to reach your goal, but not push you too hard and put you at risk for injury.
With the launch of the Polar M600, Polar looks to take your fitness program to new levels and help you train the right way so you get the most out of your training … and they hope to take their spot at the top of a very competitive fitness technology category.