Mondaine Helvetica Regular is a stylish hybrid watch with a two-year battery life

Baselworld 2018 is about to kick off, and ahead of the yearly watch show a new hybrid smartwatch has been announced, boasting two years of battery life.

Hybrid watches typically lack screens and so tend to last a long time, but if this watch – dubbed the Mondaine Helvetica Regular – lives up to those claims, it will outlast most.

In other ways it looks more conventional, albeit stylish, with a leather strap, a stainless steel body (that's water-resistant to 30 meters) and an analog face, for a traditional watch look.

Smarter than it looks

The smart functions come in the form of call and email notifications, activity tracking and sleep monitoring, including the ability to set a sleep cycle alarm, so you'll always wake up during a light sleep phase.

The Mondaine Helvetica Regular can also deliver 'Get Active Alerts' to encourage you to be more active, plus it promises a 'Dynamic Coaching' feature with health tips.

The various functions are represented by letters spaced around the dial, but presumably most of the information will be hidden away in the Helvetica's companion app.

Compatible with iOS and Android phones, the Mondaine Helvetica Regular will go on sale sometime in March with a choice of black, brown or navy blue straps for £450 (around $630, AU$820).

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.