Watch out, Apple: Martian Notifier smartwatch lands on India’s Flipkart

The announcement of the Apple Watch earlier this month got consumers excited at the possibilities of new wearable devices hooked up with smartphones. Sure enough, a new smartwatch in India has made its debut, and it’s compatible with both Android and iOS smartphones.

The Martian Notifier, launched exclusively on Flipkart today, will display alerts and notifications you choose from your phone, and also doubles up as a hands-free speaker. The smartwatch, which is mainly an analog watch with a tiny alerts window, supports voice commands, although it’s not clear how well those will work with the rich variety of Indian accents. At INR 9,999 (US$165), it may not seem affordable to many – but that’s less than half of what the Apple Watch is expected to cost when it eventually arrives in Q1 next year.

Of course, the Apple Watch is expected to do a lot of cool stuff, from digital payment to monitoring the heart. But a better comparison to the Martian would be the Moto 360 – also launching exclusively on Flipkart soon – since it has similar features and looks equally good. But it may be a few dollars more expensive.

Value for money is what goes down well with Indian consumers, and Jeffrey Hsieh, CEO of Martian Watches, emphasizes that point in a statement: “Bringing the Martian Notifier to a major growth market for consumer electronics such as India provides a unique opportunity to help set standards in the Indian wearable tech market.”

The other theme worth noting is the fashion quotient, which is gaining in importance. Smartwatches from Asian electronics giants Samsung, Sony, and LG have all had a lukewarm response to their smartwatches so far. Apple, Motorola, and now Martian wants to make smartwatches cool.

“The Notifier line is just the beginning of fashionably smart watches that Martian will launch in India,” says Kartik Iyer, regional head for Asia and Middle East at Martian Watches.

Martian belongs to a growing line of wearable devices that begin life on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Its rival Pebble has already made a foray into India on Amazon, with equally good-looking smartwatches – although they are priced much higher.

Apart from smartwatches, there are other more niche wearables that see India as a hot market. Mymo, a fitness tracker, made India its first launching pad last month.

See: Apple’s big reveal recap: the Apple Watch, two iPhone 6 flavors, and Apple Pay