Will.i.am’s next smartwatch is coming soon

Will.i.am is a man of many talents — entertainer, mogul, owner of the most perfect web address ever. He’s also something of an entrepreneur, and his next big project is coming soon. It’s a smartwatch called Dial, and it’s available for pre-order now at Three.

Unusually for a smartwatch, it requires a new mobile contract – you’ll pay £49 up front, and £22 a month to own it. That’s because it’s one of the first truly standalone smartwatches, with its own SIM card and connection to the internet, allowing it to send texts without being shackled to a mobile phone.

The Dial is also a ‘voice first’ device, i.e. it’s designed to be used primarily with your voice, rather than by tapping and swiping on the screen. This comes courtesy of a virtual assistant / operating system who is humorously called AneedA.

Like Siri or Alexa, you can ask AneedA to carry out simple tasks or find information. It’s not clear exactly how capable AneedA is, as there are no demonstrations of it working. However Three claim that it can ‘learn and tailor responses to each consumer’ and even will ‘make traditional mobile search irrelevant.’ Big words, and we’ll have to see how the Dial measures up to them.

One actual concrete benefit is free music streaming. Via 7digital, you can stream about 20 million different tracks, compared to 30 million from Apple Music or Spotify. These tracks are delivered ad-free, and they don’t count towards your data allowance either. So if you want to listen to a lot of music, want a smartwatch and have a good pair of Bluetooth headphones, Dial could make some sense.

The Dial comes with a range of other applications as well. You can call, text and send emails, take selfies with the 2-megapixel front-facing camera, track your fitness activity, get directions or check your calendar.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Dial compares to more mainstream smartwatches from Apple, Google and Pebble; I guess we’ll start to see reviews once the Dial is released on May 13th.

What do you think of Will.i.am’s Dial? Let us know in the comments below.