


The Swatch Touch Zero One is born of Swatch’s sponsorship of beach volleyball. I was able to check out the watch at the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals, chat with Swatch’s sponsored pro team, and meet with Carlo Giordanetti, Swatch’s Creative Director (center, above). And of course, my first question was, “volleyball?” But it was a good natured question, and I knew half the answer already. Swatch only sponsors a few sports, and none of them involve a motor. Beach volleyball is their most visible sponsorship, but they also sponsor pro surfing, snowboarding/free skiing, and slopestyle mountain biking. So it is only natural that the platform of the Swatch Touch Zero One will become the Touch Zero Two, Touch Zero Three, and so on. With this sport as the most visible sponsorship; the Olympics around the corner; and absent the challenges required to make a fitness tracker for these other, non-traditional sports, volleyball was the fit for the first iteration of the product.



When you get into the volleyball specific aspects of the watch, you enter the niche realm (though I wonder how really specific it is). The watch uses accelerometers to track how many hits you make over the course of a game, and also how hard you hit. So if your teammates (or rivals) also have the watch, now you have a way to end the arguments about who is the MVP of the game. The use of the sensors in this way makes me wonder if the watch could be used for other sports, such as tennis (it does not work for table tennis, I checked that out), where arm movement and contact define your interaction with the sport. Of course, if you want to really measure power, the watch has to be used on the dominant hand, which makes it a little odd for righties. When you pair the watch with the app, you can monitor the specific types of hits, attack hits, low passes, high hits, high fives, and the total number of hits, plus the relative power of your hits. From that, it calculates the calories burned.



If you really are planning on using this watch for volleyball, you will want to opt for the SunZero, the only one of the six color variations on a fabric strap. The SunZero uses an innovative closure, where the closure secures around the watch head (open in the image above and closed below), and the strap itself is not bulky, nor are there any protrusions that would interfere with bumps or blocks. Oddly, the pro players for Swatch used one of the other standard straps when they played (and yes, they did play while wearing the watch), though they wore the watch on their off hands. I asked Alexander Horst, one of the Swatch sponsored players about it and he said he needed to have his wrist free on his hitting hand to have a wider range of motion. He did like the tracking mode, where it gave him counts on the types of hits he made, information that he did not get from his coaches, but overall thought it was best suited to the amateurs and enthusiasts.



I have not played around with the apps associated with the other common fitness trackers on the market, but I will say that Swatch’s version is fun and functional. First, it has 2 way communication, so you can use the app to set the time on your watch, as well as turn modes on and off. You also pick your fitness coach, a “lazy dude,” a “tough guy,” and a “superhero.” You also pick your goal for walking in miles (or kilometers) per day, and finally you can set an overall goal for how far you want to walk, starting from where you first pair the watch and the smartphone and finally ending in an international city of your choice. I started in Ft. Lauderdale, so my goal of Miami was close by. When I got back to the West Coast, the distance did not update, so I am currently 1/5 of the way from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami. As you can see below, the app will let you know if you are falling below your daily step goal.
Watch Overview:
- Brand & Model: Swatch Touch Zero One
- Price: $130
- Who we think it might be for: You want a colorful fitness tracker that also serves as a watch, or you play volleyball.
- Would I wear one myself based on what I’ve seen?: I would wear it when I wanted to see how much walking I did over the course of the day.
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: Color matching the date wheel (or removing it).
- What spoke to me the most about this watch: The watch part is more prominent that the fitness tracker part.
Tech Specs from Swatch:
- Movement: Digital
- Functions: Two time zones, timer, alarm, fitness tracker, volleyball activity tracker, clap counter, backlight
- Case: Plastic
- Crystal: Not specified
- Water resistance: 30 meters
- Lug width: Not specified
- Straps: Silicone or textile
- Diameter: Not specified (Swatch classifies the case as XL 45-47mm, but this is a diagonal measurement)
- Thickness: Not specified