Semtember 28 2015:  2015 has been the year of the health band and the smart watch. There are smart watches today that measure heart rate, calculate how many calories you burn and how soundly you sleep. The line between health bands and smart watches is blurring, with most new generation watches going for minimalistic design, usually just a band which is primary meant to monitor your health vital. Incidentally, they display time as well. Then there are traditional watch manufacturers who stick to their customary chic design, leave the health aspects behind, and create tough watches that connect with your smart phone. The Casio G-Shock GBA-400 is one of the newest in this league -- a  watch  uses Bluetooth to let you  remotely change music tracks and alter the volume of your smart phone. As with the other watches in the G-Shock range, the GBA-400 offers shock resistance and is waterproof down to a depth of 200 metres. 
The watch uses a mobile app called G-Shock+ to sync with your phone and retrieve data from your phone memory. You can choose to play music from your phone’s native app, or even download Casio’s own music playlist app called G’Mix for smooth track transitions and equalizer settings. The app is compliant with Android and iOS devices. An interesting feature of G’ Mix is its ability to ‘listen’ to sounds or music played in the vicinity, and identify them using SoundHound, a third-party music recognition software.
The GBA-400 has all the usual watch features, such as an alarm, stopwatch and timer, and also a 300 city world clock, allowing your smart phone to choose the time zone and sync the watch accordingly. Priced at Rs. 9495, the GBA-400 is a good buy if you are a watch connoisseur with a good playlist on your smart phone.