Breitling just released the B55 Connected, an updated version of the Cockpit B50. The watch can now be connected via Bluetooth Low Energy to an app.

BaselWorld 2015 is promising to be an exciting one – it will be sans doubt the year of the smartwatch. Of course the Apple Watch bomb dropped a few weeks back and now it’s up to the Swiss manufacturers to respond. We’ve already seen Frederique Constant’s idea of a Swiss smart watch a few weeks back and TAG Heuer is expected to release something similar. At the Swatch Group’s Annual Results Press Conference, CEO Hayek hinted that tech now only offered in Swatch watches could soon also be used by more high-end brands.. In short: next few years will undoubtedly be very exciting for the watch industry as a whole.

And now there’s Breitling – with a rather unique approach. Instead of using the watch as an extension of the phone, the route taken by Breitling is perfectly opposite: the phone is in service of the watch.

What does this mean? While the watch per sé offers little to no new functions, it can be connected to a smartphone app, which in turn can be used for things like setting the alarm, changing timezones,  storing timed events et cetera. A novel idea as far as I know, and one that looks quite promising in their video – truly simplifying the operation of the watch:

We’ll be updating our database with the Breitling B55 Connected as soon as more information is available. Stay tuned!