Beepwear is the first product from MTX, a joint venture between Motorola and Timex. The pager in the Beepwear uses the latest 900 MHz implementation of Motorola's widely-deployed FLEX technology. It combines typical watch functions: time (in two time zones), day and date, a back-light, a stopwatch, and alarms with a pager that holds up to sixteen messages and feeds from up to three information services. The messages scroll along the bottom of the LCD screen. You can scroll the message forward, reverse, stop it, and select from three scrolling speeds. Beepwear is available in 3 models that have minor aesthetic differences on the face and different watch bands.

After you buy your Beepwear, you have to choose which pager plan you want and call an 800 number to activate it. Pager services are provided by Skytel. The service pricing is based on whether you pay quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. You can also choose between numeric-only paging, alphanumeric, and a number of optional services. Alpha pages can be sent from the Internet (through the Beepwear website), sent using free SkyTel software, or via a human dispatcher (for an extra monthly fee).

To give you some idea of the pricing: local numeric service is $13/month if paid quarterly, $8/month if paid annually. Local alpha paging is $17/month if paid quarterly, or $12/month if paid annually. You get 500 numeric pages per month (.10/page after that) or 200 alpha pages (.25/page after that). For an additional $5/month you can get a personal 800 or 888 number so that callers can have nationwide access to your pager. For an additional $6/month you can have operator dispatching of alpha messages. So, an alphanumeric service with the works (800 number, meatbot dispatcher) would cost you $23/month if you paid for the whole year. Not too bad. There are a number of free services that come with all plans, including the ability to record your own personal greeting that callers hear when they call your pager number, the ability to recall numeric pages sent to your beeper, and even to resend them to the pager. When you go out of town and want to receive pages in a new coverage zone, you can call an 800 number and activate SkyTel's Nationwide Now service. The service is free, but pages are .95 each. There are close to 800 cities and towns covered nationwide. Regional and nationwide service plans are also available.

Beepwear is very easy to set up. Our watch came with a pager account already set up so we were unable to evaluate this process. From the product literature it sounds like this is a quick and simple process of choosing a plan, calling the 800 number and receiving a test page. The watch has five buttons, and figuring out which buttons and button sequences do what takes some getting used to. The manual is well-designed and graphical, but I can still imagine that many non-technoweenie users would have a hard time figuring out how to use all of the features. The hard rubber buttons are a little uncomfortable to press, but not any more so than on other watches. The face of the watch is not much larger than other watches, but it's at least twice as thick, making it rather bulky looking on the wrist. My wife scrunched up her nose at the watch and said "Yeah, right!" when she saw the woman with the power suit and beepwear watch on the cover of the box. It does come with a plastic belt holster and a catalog of pendants, keychains, armbands, and other carrying options you can purchase. I imagine that many users would prefer these other options for carrying their Beepwear.

The alpha pager messages sent through the dispatcher and via the Beepwear website arrived within seconds of being sent. I had trouble getting on the website over a two day period, but assumed that they're still working the bugs out. The most disappointing thing was the hit and miss quality of the pages I received from the dispatchers. I sent a message to myself that was supposed to read: "Gareth, are you watching the Olympics? -Kevin." It came through as: "Gareth, are you watching the Olympic's, Gary?" Wondering whether this was an isolated case, I called several friends and asked them to send me some long, slightly convoluted messages. Most of these came through OK. One of them had several misspelled words, including my name. One message had obviously experienced interference and only about half of it came through. To try and really put the dispatchers to the test, I took on the role of an impatient and busy doctor calling to leave a drug name for a patient. I said (rather quickly and slightly annoyed): "GlaxoWellcome Aclovate Cream .05% Alclometasone Dipropionate Cream. For dermatological use only. 15 grams. --Dr. Roberts." I spelled each word, but not too slowly, and the dispatcher asked me to re-spell several words. The message came through: "Glaxowell Aclovate Cream .5% Aclometasone Diapropionate Cream For Demertologic 15 grams - Dr. Roberts." This doesn't seem like a very good accuracy rate. I don't think I'd feel very good about receiving mysterious messages from people I didn't know ("Gary?") and getting incorrect technical (and medical!) information. If MTX wants this service to succeed, they'd better hire sharper dispatchers.

Besides this problem with the optional dispatcher service, I'd have to say I'm pretty impressed with the Beepwear. The price of the watch is reasonable and the price of the service, even the full service, is affordable, especially if staying in constant contact is a personal or business necessity. A friend who just dropped by to pick up her son saw the Beepwear, heard the rap and the pricing, and was impressed. She recently lost her beeper and is in the market for a new one. The Beepwear looked like a possible option. She liked the small size, but smirked at the idea of actually wearing it as a watch. Maybe TMX should change the box cover so that it's a guy wearing the watch and a woman using it on a belt or pendant. The women I know don't seem too thrilled about wearing a geek beacon on their wrist.

- Gareth Branwyn [2/9/98]