Image source: Hublot

Meet the official smartwatch of FIFA World Cup 2018

Hublot is launching the official smartwatch of Fifa World Cup 2018, which is going to be held in Russia from June 14th to July 15th. Called The Big Bang Referee, this is a limited edition timepiece that runs Wear OS and comes with an assortment of World Cup-themed goodies.

In terms of actual technical specs, The Big Bang Referee is made of titanium and comes in a satin-finish. The watch is 49mm in diameter, it has a 35.4mm 400 x 400 AMOLED screen, Bluetooth 4.1/802.11n Wi-Fi and 24 hours of battery life. Powering everything is Intel’s Atom Z34XX processor.

Meet the official smartwatch of the FIFA World Cup 2018
Image source: Hublot

For die-hard fans who cannot wait for the World Cup to start, the watch displays a countdown to the competition. Once the tournament starts, they’ll get a reminder 15 minutes before every match. During the matches, the watch face will show the score, the number of cards, names of goal-scorers, player substitutions and time left before the final whistle. The device will even vibrate and show the word GOAL whenever someone scores, and will dish out notifications in real-time whenever a Yellow or Red card is handed out.

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A special non-commercial version of the timepiece is going to be worn by the referees at the tournament. In addition to all the above functionality, it will have the ability to interface with goal-line technology. This will enable refs to know instantly when a goal has been recognised by the automatic electronic video assistance system. Apparently, the watch has already been tried and tested by some referees during the qualification phase so should hopefully work without a hitch during the finals.

If you are a football fan and wish to become one of a select few to own the timepiece, you won’t be happy to know it comes attached to a rather hefty $5,200 price tag. The Swiss company is releasing a total of 2018 pieces, starting on May 1, 2018.

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Dusan Johnson

Dusan is our dedicated sports editor which means he gets to indulge his two passions: writing and gadgets. He never leaves his house without a minimum of two wearable devices to monitor his every move.

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