A Long Term Test Of The Bugatti Ceramique Smart Watch

PRESS RELEASE
Published October 21, 2023

This is a review of my long-term experience with the Bugatti Ceramique smartwatch. It’s also a personal journey of switching from a traditional automatic watch to a smartwatch.

I adore my IWC Mark XII, but it’s been collecting dust in my drawer for quite some time. I’ve got to admit, I’ve become reliant on the added features my smartwatch provides that just make daily life easier.

What I’ve grown to love, which a traditional watch just can’t offer, are the little conveniences – like quickly seeing who’s calling without pulling out my phone. Or basic health tracking like step counting. When I notice I’ve barely moved during a workweek, it pushes me to get active over the weekend. Plus, getting feedback after a workout always feels rewarding.

Before I tried a smartwatch, I couldn’t fathom trading in my self-winding watch for one I’d need to charge regularly. The idea had zero appeal. I mean, keeping my phone charged is enough of a hassle. But the Bugatti smartwatch caught my attention with its impressive week-long battery life, depending on usage. That’s why I passed on the Tag Heuer Connected. Sure, it’s got smoother animations and looks great. Quality-wise, it’s on par with the Bugatti Ceramique. But a one-day battery life? That’s a dealbreaker for me.

I appreciate that my watch auto-adjusts to the correct time, thanks to my phone or GPS. It switches between daylight saving and standard time, saving me the biannual hassle. And when I travel, it updates the time zone as soon as my phone connects to a local network. The dual time feature, showing both local and home time, is a nice touch.

I might be a bit old-school, but I value the look and material of a smartwatch more than its screen refresh rate. And I’m wary of sharing my health data with unknown entities in the cloud. I hate products that force you to register and connect to their cloud service. Kudos to the Bugatti smartwatch for allowing immediate use without any of that. It lets me store data solely on the watch and phone. Though, I might reconsider when I get a new phone to keep my activity history when migrating to the new phone.

Above all, I value craftsmanship and attention to detail. I don’t want a cheap-looking watch. I love the sapphire glass on my IWC that has come through many years of use without a scratch. So far, the same is true for the sapphire glass on my Bugatti smart watch. And the ceramic bezel, less scratch-prone than stainless steel and just sleek, is a highlight.

Here are the features I use regularly:

  1. Classic analog face that lights up when I check the time.
  2. Phone notifications (calls, emails, texts).
  3. Step tracking.
  4. Countdown timer (for cooking).
  5. Fitness tracking, including heart rate and outdoor activity tracking.
  6. Bio age calculation based on heart rate variability.

Display activation can be done manually (longest battery runtime), based on wrist movement to orient the watch for looking at it, or always on. Display always on reduces the battery endurance to about two days.

You can activate the display in a few ways: manually (which gives you the longest battery life), by moving your wrist to check the time, or by keeping it always on. If you keep the display on all the time, you’re looking at about two days of battery life.

The watch is always counting your steps as long as you’re wearing it.

For those who love outdoor workouts, the watch tracks your route, speed, and distance using satellite navigation (using GPS, Glonass, and Galileo). But if you’re tracking a long workout with this feature, your battery might last only a day or even less.

The bio age feature is pretty cool. It tells you if your heart’s fitness is better or worse compared to your actual age. It’s a great way to see your health trends over weeks or months, not so much day-to-day. It’s definitely motivated me to hit the trails more on weekends. To get accurate heart rate variability readings, I make sure to wear the watch to bed about twice a week

The interface is user-friendly. I wish there were more watch face options and customization. A stronger vibration for alarms would be great too. There’s a bunch of other standard features, but after the novelty wears off, I rarely use them. And while it lacks some features of feature rich smartwatches like the Apple Watch, it nails the essentials.

What I love most? Its craftsmanship, the look on my wrist, its user-friendliness, and the essential features. A week-long battery life in regular use is a big plus. And while it’s not cheap, given the quality and limited production, I think it’s worth the price. You can buy the Bugatti smartwatch from $1,290.00 USD at www.bugatti-smartwatches.com.

CDN Newswire