Fashion meets fitness with the Mira wearable
One simple-but-effective activity tracker and a lot of fashion options for how you wear it: that's what Mira promises with its 'smart jewellery' line on show at CES 2016.
Mira's new Vivid range of "individual settings".
If you think that fitness trackers are too utilitarian when it comes to design (and let's face it, the current Fitbit is clearly a wearable example of New Brutalism) then the Mira might be for you.
Designed unashamedly with a 'feminine' concept of jewellery, the Mira is a simple concept. Much like the original series of the Fitbit, the core of the device is an ovoid activity tracker that Mira calls the Opal.
The Opal then sits in a wrist mount: call it a bracelet or, to use the Mira lexicon, an Individual Setting. The Opal itself is pretty standard tracker. You'll get step counts, elevation (how many stairs you've climbed), distance and calorie counting, all available on the Opal's screen or via the app.
It's the design of the bracelet that sets Mira apart from the more functional crowd. The basic Mira model comes in five different colours with names like 'hot chocolate', 'heart of gold and 'rose all day'. No matter the hue, the bracelets are all made of the same surgical grade stainless steel. An Opal and bracelet combo costs you $169 and new settings are $99 each. (That's around £115/AU$235 and £68/AU$140 respectively.)
The original Mira bracelet settings.
At CES 2016, Mira announced its Vivid range. These are new settings options for the Opal: a pendant and a fully enclosed bracelet that covers the screen and makes it look even less like a wearable device.
No pricing on the Vivid series yet, but Mira assured me that the pendant placement wouldn't impact the ability of the Opal to track steps and elevation.