Intel reveals MICA, a luxury smart bracelet

We’ve got smartwatches, smart glasses, smart rings, smart fitness bands, so a smart bracelet called MICA is nothing new to the wearable market. Unless its made by Intel and Opening Ceremony fashion house and looks absolutely gorgeous.

This piece of news is targeted mostly at women, because MICA, the luxury smart bracelet Intel has just announced looks stunning and is available in two different designs. MICA comes as an effort from Intel to introduce its own design on the wearable market. MICA is actually short for My Intelligent Communication Accessory and its main purpose is to give you notifications, alerts. SMS messages and calendar reminders.

The MICA bracelet is actually a jewelry, with a 1.6 inch curved sapphire touchscreen on the inside of your wrist. The gadget will also pack its own 3G cellular radio, so it doesn’t need to be paired with a smartphone each time you use it, which is a pretty sought after feature in wearable tech. It also features wireless and USB charging and will be sold at Barney’s for the not-so-modest sum of around $1000. Since it’s more jewelry than gadget, made out of unique materials, the price tag is actually appropriate, especially since its not only made by Intel, but it’s also designed by a major fashion house.

The device will be officially introduced at Opening Ceremony’s spring/summer 2015 fashion show on Sunday, during Fashion Week in New York. The MICA bracelet will be available in two styles: one will have black watersnake skin, pearls from China, and lapis stones from Madagascar, while the other style will include white watersnake skin, tiger’s eye from South Africa, and obsidian from Russia, so the MICA will be a guaranteed fashion statement.

I personally don’t agree that the MICA bracelet uses snakeskin in the design and would not buy the device just because of this issue. I think the same design can be realized through cruelty free materials. That’s the animal activist in me talking, but I honestly think I’m right. In any case, the MICA bracelet is newsworthy because it’s among the first wearables (besides Ringly and Misfit Bloom) that cater to the fashionista category.