Hands On With Mica, Intel and Opening Ceremony's $495 Wearable

Mica is essentially a chunky plastic bangle, albeit one encrusted with stones on the front and a curved sapphire glass touch screen on the back.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect about Mica is that it operates independently of your other devices; it doesn't connect to your smartphone or tablet.

Mica comes in two variations: this one is black water snake skin with pearls from China and lapis stones from Madagascar.

Both colors feature an 18K gold coating on the trimmings.

Mica seems to be mostly about notifications. You can link up to two Gmail accounts to the device, and you'll receive text messages as well as incoming mail from those you designate as "important contacts" in Gmail.

I didn't get a chance to take a close look at the user interface, but it's mostly built around swiping up and down, like Android Wear. There's a lot of gray and black, which looks stylish, but a little drab.

This version of Mica features white water snake skin with tiger's eye from South Africa and obsidian from Russia.