In development · prototype stage · not for sale yet

A rugged watch you can read in full sun.

So Smart Watch is a large, rectangular outdoor watch from So Smart Apps. It talks to iPhone and Android over Bluetooth, records trails and workouts, and works with the Apex Life coach.

This page covers what is planned, how pairing works in the companion app today, how big offline map packs are, and a viewer for the trails and workouts the app exports.

What it is

Planned design as of October 2026. Details can change as the hardware prototype is built and tested.

Rugged

Built toward MIL-STD-810 and 100 m water resistance. Rectangular case; the display flips for a left or right wrist.

Readable in sunlight

A reflective color display that is easy to read outdoors, plus a red-only night mode with a red frontlight.

Power

Solar cells in the bezel ring extend battery life. A swappable battery pod, with a small internal cell that keeps the watch running during a swap. Charges over USB-C, even while worn.

Sensors

Multi-band GPS, barometric altimeter, 3-axis compass, temperature, optical heart rate, accelerometer and gyroscope.

Voice

Built-in microphone and speaker. Talk to the Apex Life coach through your phone.

Your data, your apps

Workouts export as FIT and GPX files for Strava, Garmin Connect and most maps apps. Saving to Apple Health or Android Health Connect is being built into the app.

Pairing & setup

The watch pairs with the So Smart Watch companion app on your phone over Bluetooth. Watch hardware is still a prototype; these steps are how the app works today.

Turn on Bluetooth on your phone and hold the watch close to it.
Open the companion app and go to Pair your watch. The app shows Looking for your watch… while it scans.
Tap your watch in the list. It is shown as So Smart Watch with its signal strength.
Wait for Connected. The app then sets the watch to your phone's time and time zone, your wrist side, and the display mode (day, red night or auto).
The app remembers the paired watch, so you only do this once.

If it doesn't connect

No watches found: check that Bluetooth is on, the app is allowed to use Bluetooth, and the watch is next to the phone. Then tap Scan again.
Couldn't connect: tap Scan again and pick the watch once more.

Security: the watch uses bonded Bluetooth pairing (LE Secure Connections) and only accepts commands from the phone it is bonded to. Developers: the full message format is in the project's BLE protocol document.

Offline map packs

The plan: pick an area on your phone before you head out, download it as a map pack (roads, trails and place names, from OpenStreetMap data), and send it to the watch so the map works with no signal. The final watch has built-in flash storage for packs.

Not available yet. Map packs are in development. The sizes below were measured on 11 Oct 2026 from real map data for these areas, without terrain or contour lines, which will add size.

Area Tucson area (about 70 × 75 km) Southern Arizona All of Arizona

Detail Overview (map zoom 12) Trail detail (map zoom 14)

All measured sizes

Map pack sizes by area and detail level
Area	Overview	Trail detail
Tucson area	3.3 MB	17 MB
Southern Arizona	12 MB	58 MB
All of Arizona	41 MB	218 MB

Trail & workout viewer

Open a GPX file exported from the companion app (Share trail, or a workout's GPX export) to see the route, distance, time and heart rate. The file stays in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Choose a GPX file or drop it here

A made-up demo loop near Tucson, with made-up heart rate.

FIT files (also exported by the app) open in Strava and Garmin Connect; use the GPX export for this viewer.