Chinese firm launches smart watch for pregnant women

Chinese childcare portal babytree.com launched a smart watch for pregnant women on Thursday.

The website has teamed up with leading hardware manufacturers to produce the device, according to company head Wang Huainan.

The company has started taking preorders for the product, which is priced at 1,499 yuan ($250).

Named "B-smart", the watch will help detect key physiological indicators, including any change in the mother's weight, quickening heart rate, contraction of the uterus, etc.

The watch is equipped with a 1.5-inch high-solution touch-sensitive screen and a 5-million-pixel camera, and it runs on the Android operating system.

Data collected by the watch can be transmitted to a mobile application developed by babytree.

Smart watch devices are set to gain in popularity in 2014, according to consultancy firm Juniper Research. The market is expected to grow from $1.4 billion in 2013 to $18 billion in 2018.

Major technology companies, including Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Corp, have also launched smart devices to ride the latest mobile boom.