The new Citizen CZ Smart Watch collection strives to connect people to link mental health with physical health and vice versa.
In recent years, as smartwatches have become more accurate at measuring vital signs and exercise statistics, more attention has been focused on how they can be utilized in order to improve sleep and mental health. With the new CZ smartwatch lineup that Citizen introduced at CES 2023, the watchmaker is attempting to do just that, and it will arrive in the United States in March.
In an effort to better understand how factors such as sleep and stress can affect our physical health, Citizen has launched the Citizen CZ Smart Watch as the latest example of how smartwatch makers are exploring these factors. In addition, this is yet another sign that wearables will soon move beyond tracking health metrics to providing advice and context around those numbers in a more comprehensive way.
It is the company’s claim that the new smartwatches are capable of assessing fatigue levels and alertness levels based on tools designed by NASA Ames Research Center’s Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory. Not only can the Citizen CZ Smart Watch give an understanding of how your body is doing throughout the day, but it can also detail the information in a way that makes it understandable to the average user.
In addition to providing insights that help the wearer become smarter about their own wellness, Synced YouQ software featured in the 2023 Citizen CZ Smart Watch also gives real-time biofeedback to the wearer to help them make better choices about how they live their lives.
As the wearer’s sleep data and Alert Scores are processed over the period of seven to ten days, CZ Smart YouQ will be able to understand their chronotype (when they prefer to sleep and wake) based on neural networks developed within the IBM Watson Studio workspace. Over time, the understanding will be enhanced as more data is collected.
As its main feature, the watch is designed to provide alert scores to users who take the Alert Monitor test. Citizen claims that the alert score is derived from a test used by NASA to assess astronauts’ alertness called the Psychomotor Vigilance Test. According to Citizen, the Alert Monitor tests are short and can be taken on a daily basis.
Built on Google’s Wear OS software, the Citizen CZ Smart Watch comes equipt with a microphone and speaker and will be able to run a wide range of smartwatch apps, such as Spotify, Amazon Alexa, Strava and YouTube Music, among others. In addition to the sensors that are typical of most smartwatches, such as gyroscopes, and accelerometer, the Citizen CZ Smart Watch also features a barometer, altimeter and blood oxygen monitor.
Launching March 2023, the Citizen CZ Smart Watch starts at $350 for the “casual” finish, while it begins at $375 for the “sport” finish and will work on both Android and iOS-based smartphones.
