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The Olio smartwatch.

What happens when you write about how you were not overwhelmed by your Apple Watch and sent it back? You get a lot of messages about other smartwatches in the making, and how they have solved the problems.

The latest offering to come across my desk came from Olio, a start-up brand founded in part by a not-quite-30-something called Steve Jacobs (I know, I know, take out the “ac,” and what do you have left?) who has already been through the training grounds of Apple, HP and Amazon. Olio is really at the beginning of its life span: It has sold one round of 1,000 watches online, and it’s just unveiling the next batch. Over all, I think it has some potential.

Here’s what I like: It is compatible with both iOS and Android platforms. It has a sort of pleasing giantness that is fashiony, as opposed to gadgety. And it doesn’t do everything, but most of what it does seems useful.

Aesthetically, the Olio watch reminds me most of a really oversize Cartier Ballon Bleu — it has the same curves — with the more hard-core aesthetic of a sports watch. In size, however, it is most comparable, according to Mr. Jacobs, with the Michael Kors Boyfriend Watch, though a lot heavier and thicker (all that technology). It still takes up the majority of the width of my forearm, but it does do that oversize-watch slide-around, mostly because it is so weighty, which has the optical effect of making your arms look pleasingly slim.

The watch comes in a variety of what Mr. Jacobs called “styles,” that are, in fact, color ways, because while the strap and metal may change, the shape of the watch does not. (This language blunder pretty much summed up the gaps between fashion and technology to me.)

The face is either surgical grade brushed 316L stainless steel or matte black, and the bracelets are leather (black, brown, tan), or steel link. Five hundred pieces have been made in steel as well as in black, along with 100 pieces plated in 24-karat yellow and 100 in 18-karat rose gold, with an alligator or link bracelet. I think those are too garish, but the matte black and brushed steel are pretty chic.

It is impact and scratch resistant, so you could also take it rock climbing, if the urge so hit.

The display is of a digitally recreated traditional watch face complete with hands, though it has a quirky added touch: a “cloud” of notifications that grows between the numbers to create a pictogram of your busiest periods. It doesn’t really serve much purpose other than being able to tell you at a glance when you got the most emails/texts/notifications during a day, which is information that is probably already glaringly obvious. But it’s kind of pretty, and I guess it could serve as a fun party trick. Like most smartwatches, it’s in sleep mode when resting to save power, leaving the impression of a big black hole on your arm, which I still find visually problematic.

Olio doesn’t work with apps, but it organizes your emails and texts for you; swipe one way and you can see what came in “earlier,” swipe the other for new notifications. Here’s my favorite part, though: It comes with a cloud-based “personal assistant.” If you are, for example, driving, and you get a call that you can’t take, you can swipe one way. The assistant will send your caller a text saying that you are driving and will call back, and then it will text you reminding you to do so. The assistant will also learn to prioritize by clocking (no pun intended) user behavior, à la Pandora, so if you always look at emails from people X, Y and Z, they will pop up first.

Prices range from $595 for the steel/leather version to $1,395 for the gold-plated one.

In any case, the other nice thing about the watch is that, like most watches worth investing in, it is meant to be used for a while; it’s not a one-year planned obsolescence thing.

I still think the Olio is mostly going to appeal to men, primarily because of its size and weight. I’m not ready to buy one for myself (or entirely convinced that the wrist is really a body part that needs to be colonized by tech), but when it comes to something I wouldn’t mind seeing on the arm of a loved one, while I wouldn’t call this a big step forward, it’s maybe a pretty sprightly hop in the right direction.