Motorola’s Moto 360 Smartwatch To Cost $250, Here Are Its Most Beautiful Faces

The Moto 360 is set to hit store shelves this summer, and the hype is just about as high as it could get. Now, the Motorola smart watch’s price point appears to have leaked, so tech addicts can get an idea of how much they’ll be handing over for what looks like it will be the first great Android wearable.

The Star Online this week pointed to a Google+ conversation wherein representatives from Motorola Mobility appeared to confirm a $250 price range for the Moto 360. Responding to post from a Moto 360 fan, Moto representatives said that the $250 estimate constituted an “Approximate Retail Value” for the smartwatch. It’s not a concrete statement on just how much the Moto 360 will sell for, but it gives a good idea of just the range Motorola will try to position the Android smartwatch in.

Motorola first showed off the Moto 360 earlier this year, wowing tech observers with the smartwatch’s minimalist design. Following up on the unveiling, Motorola kicked off a design contest for the watch, calling for designers to submit potential digital watch faces for the Moto 360. As The Verge notes, the contest received more than a thousand entries. Motorola selected the 10 most appealing Moto watch faces, seen below, and those finalists will go up for a vote on Motorola’s Google+ page to determine the winner.

And just what is the prize for the best Moto watch face? The top entry gets a Moto 360 watch for themselves, while the nine runners-up get a $50 Google Play gift card. Quite a fall-off there, but if the Moto 360 winds up being sold through Google’s Play Store, it could save some cash.

The Moto 360 will run Android Wear, a version of Google’s mobile platform specially designed to work with wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness monitors. In designing the Moto 360, Motorola went to great lengths to ensure that its high-tech watch wasn’t so overloaded on features and gimmicks that it didn’t look like a watch any more.

“This device,” Motorola’s design chief told The Verge of the Moto 360, “is made to function as a watch on your wrist the way a watch would. To not just look that way, but to work that way for people.”

Motorola’s attention to design appears to have paid off, at least in terms of initial public perception. The Moto 360 has sparked more excitement and interest than any product Motorola has released in years, including last year’s Moto X smartphone.

The Moto 360 will likely see release a bit later in the summer, but it won’t have the wearables market all to itself. The tech giants have identified wearables as the next big thing, and Samsung has already moved to grab a big slice of the industry with not one or two or three, but four smart watches released over the past year, possibly with more on the way.

Of course, there’s also Apple’s iWatch, which a new report today says is due for an October release. If previous Apple releases are any indication, this next one will likely set the bar for design and function. In the mean time, though, the Moto 360 holds the crown, and now all that’s left is to see how well it works.