A rotating crown smartwatch borrows one of the oldest pieces of watch design — the winding crown — and turns it into a scroll wheel for a touchscreen interface. REXQU’s Meridian is the clearest example in the current lineup: a signature fluted crown that spins through a 3D visual menu instead of relying on swipes and taps alone.
Quick answer: the REXQU Meridian is REXQU’s rotating crown smartwatch, pairing a spinning fluted crown with a 1.75-inch AMOLED display (466×466 resolution), NFC payment-code support, and REXQU’s usual health tracking stack — all for $139.97.
What a Rotating Crown Smartwatch Actually Does
On a traditional watch, the crown is the small knob on the case side used for winding the movement and setting the time — a concept with a long horological history. On a rotating crown smartwatch like Meridian, that same physical knob is repurposed as a scroll input: spin it and the watch’s 3D visual menu rotates through app icons and screens, instead of you swiping the touchscreen for every selection.
It’s a nod to traditional watch design that most fitness-band-style smartwatches skip entirely in favor of a flat grid of touch icons. The appeal is partly tactile — a crown gives you a physical dial to turn with a gloved hand, wet fingers, or without looking at the screen — and partly aesthetic, since a fluted crown reads as a classic watchmaking detail rather than a bare button.
REXQU Meridian: Full Specs Behind the Rotating Crown
Beyond the crown itself, the Meridian runs REXQU’s everyday health-tracking stack on its 1.75-inch AMOLED display: continuous heart-rate tracking, on-demand cuff-free blood pressure readings, SpO₂ spot checks, guided breathing sessions and automatic sleep tracking, all logged through the free FitCloudPro companion app.
| Spec | REXQU Meridian |
|---|---|
| Display | 1.75″ AMOLED, 466×466 |
| Crown | Fluted, rotates through 3D visual menu |
| NFC | Payment-code support (reader/app/region dependent) |
| Health tracking | Heart rate, blood pressure, SpO₂, sleep, breathing |
| Water resistance | IP68 |
| Battery | 300mAh — 5–7 days typical use, 30+ days standby |
| Colors | Black, Gold-Pink, Silver |
| Price | $139.97 |
The Meridian also includes NFC hardware for payment-code support, though actual tap-to-pay compatibility depends on your bank, wallet app and the reader you’re using — worth confirming before buying specifically for that feature. A 300mAh battery carries the watch through 5 to 7 days of typical use, stretching past 30 days on standby, with IP68 water resistance for rain, sweat and hand-washing.
Is the Crown Worth It Over a Flat Touchscreen?
That depends on how you actually use the watch day to day. A crown is genuinely useful for scrolling long lists — notifications, sport modes, menu screens — without smudging the display or needing precise taps. It’s also easier to operate one-handed or with the screen partly obscured, like under a jacket sleeve.
If you mostly check the time and glance at a couple of health stats, a flat touchscreen interface works just as well and you won’t notice the difference. The crown earns its keep on a watch you navigate often, which is exactly the everyday-use case Meridian is built for.
For background on the hardware concept itself, Android Authority’s explainer on Apple’s Digital Crown covers how a rotating input evolved from mechanical watch crowns into a smartwatch navigation tool — the same underlying idea REXQU applies to Meridian’s fluted crown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Meridian still have a touchscreen? Yes — the crown adds a scrolling input option alongside the full touchscreen, rather than replacing it. You can swipe and tap as normal and use the crown when it’s more convenient.
Does spinning the crown drain the battery faster? No more than any other input method. The crown is a mechanical input that triggers the same screen-on behavior as a tap or swipe, so it doesn’t add meaningful extra power draw on its own.
Is the fluted crown waterproof? The Meridian carries an IP68 rating as a complete unit, covering the crown mechanism along with the rest of the case for rain, sweat and hand-washing exposure.
Bottom Line
If you want a smartwatch with crown-and-dial navigation that looks like a traditional watch but tracks heart rate, blood pressure and sleep underneath, the REXQU Meridian is currently the only model in REXQU’s everyday-style lineup built around that crown-and-dial navigation. See full specs on the REXQU Meridian product page or browse the wider REXQU Everyday Style collection.
Source: Android Authority — What is a Digital Crown and why does your Apple Watch have one?