Martian Watches is at CES 2016 in Las Vegas showing off a couple new watches, including something described as a hybrid smartwatch for women.

Our quick take

Martian made a hybrid smartwatch for women

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The watch is the Kindred vip. It has a round watch face with a diameter of 38mm set in a stainless steel case. You'll be able to get the case in a variety of different colours, including ion-plated rose gold and black and polished stainless steel. It also comes with interchangeable Italian leather straps and stainless steel bracelets. In fact, this watch series is divided into two collections: CL and SP.

The CL collection features watch designs that are supposedly ideal for dressing smart during the day or evening occasions. The SP collection on the other hand is for the athletic-minded and has a more colourful and vibrant in appearance, or so Martian thinks. When we went hands-on with the SP collection, we didn't think they were especially sporty or even overly colourful.

Standout hardware features for both collections include an LED light for notifications (which you can assign up to seven different colours to using the Martian Smart mVip app), dual batteries (one battery is analog and can last two years, while the other is a lithium for smart features and lasts up two to three weeks), and both a Miyota 3-hand analog movement and Martian’s mVip technology module.

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Pocket-lint

That last bit is key - because it's what makes your watch smart and houses an alert vibration motor. It works with the LED light on the outside of the watch (toward the bottom) to send custom notifications to your wrist. This is how it works: open the mVip app to create and customise up to 7 vip groups, in which you can define vibration patterns in combination with an assigned LED color.

The idea is that people receive a multitude of vibrations all day long, but by setting a specific vibration and LED colour to, let’s say, any incoming texts from your boss, you’ll be able to quickly discern when your boss is texting you and can ignore any other notification you may be receiving. You can set up to four short vibrations for urgent notifications and two short vibrations for non urgent stuff.

Beyond all that, Martian’s new watch features a Bluetooth 4.0 chip, 3-axis accelerometer, 3ATM water resistance, and the ability to track stuff, such as your steps, calories, and sleep. If any of that interests you, the Kindred vip launches in August 2016 with a starting price of $195.

We think its a beautiful watch series that - like all Martian watches do - blends a classic analog design with smart features by being able to connect to your iOS or Android smartphone in order to push highly-customised notifications to your wrist. 

But mostly, we like that the Kindred vip is small enough and light enough and comfortable enough for women.