Intel have been showing a strong interest in wearables over the last few years. Back in March 2014 they acquired Basis Science, the startup company behind the B1 fitness tracker and later on the Basis Peak. Then in July 2015 Intel acquired the smart eyewear company Recon Instruments, makers of the rather cool Recon Jet AR smartglasses for cyclists.

Around the same time, Intel were talking with Luxottica, the world’s leading eyewear company and the owners of many top brands including Oakley. There were some rumors floating around a year ago that suggested Oakley were getting involved with Google Glass, that never materialized, but the partnership with Intel was one of the subjects of the Intel Keynote conference at CES 2016.

The Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich welcomed the three-time Ironman world champion Craig Alexander onto the stage to talk about the new Oakley Radar Pace smartglasses developed in partnership with Intel.

The Oakley Radar Pace glasses offer a wearable fitness coaching solution for any level of athlete, so you don’t need to be training for the Ironman world championships to benefit from them.

The demonstration was focused on running and cycling. There was no sign of any augmented reality display, there’s also no touchpad on the side – as offered by other smartglasses. Instead, the Oakley Radar Pace work with voice commands and responses. On either side of the glasses’ frames is a specially mounted earpiece – not quite sure where the mic is located yet.

The glasses keep track of performance data such as distance, pace and power. But, there are plenty of wearables that already offer this kind of data! What makes Oakley Radar Pace different is they help you to understand how to interpret your data and how to best respond in that moment – much like a real life fitness coach would.

Instead of feeding you preset instructions based on somebody elses capabilities, Radar Pace analyzes your data and responds in real-time. The glasses are exclusively voice activated, and the demonstration was reminiscent to Google Now. When the three-time Ironman champ spoke to the smarglasses, he started with “okay Radar” and asked things such as “what’s my workout plan for today?” and “how’s my pace?”. The glasses promptly answered in a slighty robotic female voice and proceeded with advice on how to improve performance. When he had finished his workout, the Ironman simply said “stop” to let the glasses know he’d ended the session.

There are other wearables that offer digital coaching, but as of yet, to my knowledge none of them are anywhere near as cool as Oakley Radar Pace. Their design is based on the ® sunglasses – which we already know look extremely good.

The price of the Oakley Radar Pace smart eyewear wasn’t revealed, but the Intel CEO said they would be released late in 2016.

Another tech giant showing off their new eyewear yesterday was Garmin who unveiled their new Varia Vision augmented reality smartglasses for cyclists.