Google’s Android has announced new swappable watch bands for its Android Wear smartwatches. Called MODE watch bands, they have been developed in collaboration with Hadley-Roma.
The watch bands come in leather or silicone and a range of colors, and feature small, sliding buttons that lock their bands in place when they’re attached to Android Wear smartwatches. And this latter design feature is one that Android is keen to propagate with other watch band partners: The company has launched a vendor playbook to help potential partners develop their own Android Wear band accessories.
The move echoes Android’s competition in the smartwatch space, with Apple Watch having launched designer watch bands in collaboration with Hermès. While Android has also collaborated with a luxury fashion brand, its move with MODE offers a more modular approach that could bring a number of partners from the fashion accessory world into the Android Wear ecosystem. And given that Apple may be working on enabling attachable peripherals for its own Apple Watch, this may point to a modular future for smartwatches in general.
Source: Android Official Blog
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