Fitbit Air Pokémon Sleep edition begins shipping today

Google's Fitbit Air Special Edition Pokémon Sleep begins shipping today in the United States and Japan. The $129.99 wearable takes the screenless Fitbit Air introduced earlier this year and adds a Sleepy Blue colour scheme, a sleeping Pikachu design and direct thematic integration with Pokémon Sleep. The hardware continues to monitor sleep and wellness without putting another display on the user's wrist, an increasingly interesting alternative to feature-heavy smartwatches.

Pokémon branding makes the device more than a cosmetic collaboration because sleep information can feed into the entertainment experience, turning a health metric into part of a game routine. The special edition also connects with Google Health and can interoperate with Health Connect on Android and Apple Health on iOS. That combination makes today's launch an unusually clear example of hardware, health data and mobile gaming converging into one product.

It also gives Google a high-profile showcase for the relatively new Fitbit Air form factor.