Tech companies LG and Huawei have unveiled a range of new smartwatches featuring metal-framed circular designs. The announcements were made on the eve of the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona.
LG's Watch Urbane comes in two editions - a basic version powered by Android Wear, and a high-end one with a 4G chip and a new operating system.
The latter can make and answer calls and send texts without needing to be linked to a phone.
The Huawei Watch uses Android Wear, and has a bigger display made out of sapphire crystal.
So far, demand for computer-powered watches has been fragile. In 2014 only 720,000 watches powered by Google's Android Wear were shipped despite considerable publicity for the launches of the Moto 360, Asus ZenWatch and Samsung Gear Live, according to market research firm Canalys.
However, sales are expected to jump in 2015, as Apple is releasing its Watch in April alongside a big budget marketing campaign, which may benefit the wider sector.
The Watch Urbane models are LG's third and fourth smartwatches, and the Huawei Watch the Chinese firm's first.
"Huawei's market entry will accelerate price competition, but the increasingly crowded market, differentiation challenges and the looming Apple Watch will limit its opportunity," commented George Jijiashvili, wearables analyst at the tech consultancy CCS Insight.
LG
The 4G-enabled Watch Urbane LTE features a 1.3in (3.3cm) plastic OLED
display, a brushed stainless steel frame, and has three buttons on its
side.
One of these acts as a panic alarm. When pressed it calls a preset phone number and sends details of the wearer's location - provided by its on-board GPS chip - to the recipient.
It also provides a push-to-talk facility, acting like a walkie-talkie with other compatible devices on the same data network.
Other facilities include: an NFC (near field communication) chip for touch-and-go payments, IP67 dust and waterproofing certification, allowing it to be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes, a heart rate monitor, barometer and nine-axis accelerometer to provide activity-tracking readings.
LG said the watch was its first device to run its new LG Wearable Platform OS, which would also feature in other future products.
The more basic model is the slightly thinner, but features a smaller capacity battery, just one side-button, a polished metal exterior and lacks GPS and NFC functionality.
Huawei
The Huawei Watch has a 1.7in (4.2mm) crystal OLED display - which the company says is scratchproof and more vibrant than the competition - in a 4.2cm diameter stainless steel metal frame. Its screen is slightly higher resolution at 286 pixels per inch than the 245ppi specification of LG's devices.
The Chinese firm highlighted that it was also easy to recharge via a magnetic cradle.
Other features include: a heart rate monitor, barometer and six-axis accelerometer, four gigabytes of internal storage, three colour options - gold, silver and black - and a variety of watchstraps.
Several tech blogs immediately declared Huawei's device the best-looking Android Wear watch to date - an important consideration since, unlike most computer equipment, smartwatches double up as jewellery, says BBC.
HThe company also unveiled the TalkBand B2, a revamped version of its activity tracker wristband that can be split in two to allow one part to act as a Bluetooth headset.
