Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Watch MBW-100 review: Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Watch MBW-100

Sony Ericsson has teamed up with watchmaker Fossil to create the first Bluetooth-enabled watch we've seen at CNET.com.au.

7.0

Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Watch MBW-100

The Good

Stylish design. Caller ID shown on watch. Vibrating alert.

The Bad

Only compatible with Sony Ericsson phones. Constantly charging your watch could get annoying.

The Bottom Line

Sony Ericsson's Bluetooth Watch is an innovative combination of technology and practicality, although it's slightly gimmicky and has little support for other phones.

Design
The MBW-100 has a modern silver design with a deep blue face, silver links for the wrist band and a classic accordion-style clasp. The chunkiness of the watch and size of the face is eye-catching and stylish -- more of a men's than a women's watch.

There are three control buttons on the right-hand side -- a clickable rotating dial (which you also use to adjust the analog clock), and buttons on either side of the knob. A blue OLED display below the watch face shows the date, battery status, menu options and -- strangely -- the time in digital form.

Features
The Bluetooth Watch connects wirelessly to some Sony Ericsson mobile phones and vibrates to alert users to calls and text messages. Caller ID is displayed or a mail icon shows on the screen. It also lets you reject calls, mute the phone's ringer and control the music player on your Sony Ericsson phone through various button combinations on the watch itself.

Performance
After charging the MBW-100 for a couple of hours -- Sony Ericsson bundles a charger which clips onto the side of the watch -- it's ready to be paired with your phone. Enter the password "0000" and you're ready to go.

Unfortunately we couldn't get Nokia, BlackBerry or Motorola phones we had in for review to pair.

When a text is received the watch vibrates for three short bursts and a mail icon appears on the OLED display under the watch face. Only the first message alert will come through to the phone -- if you've already got an unread message the watch does nothing.

Similarly, the watch vibrates for the duration that an incoming call rings. To stop the vibration, you can choose to reject the call or answer your phone.

Sony Ericsson claims the MBW-100 is waterproof to 30 metres. We weren't game to take a mobile phone down to those depths but the watch remained connected to our phone and vibrated when messages came in when we placed the watch in a jug of water.

The MBW-100 is an interesting concept, but it's still quite gimmicky and limited in function in its current form. If you add the Sony Ericsson MRC-60 to the equation, though, being able to control the music on your home stereo from your watch (up to 20 metres away) is kind of geeky and cool.

Sony Ericsson provides a standard one-year warranty with the MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch.