Kairos offers a hybrid smartwatch for the haute horologists (pictures)

Tucked away in a corner of MWC, this is the Kairos Watch, a blend of smartwatch and traditional mechanical time-keeping.

The 'gimmick' of the Kairos is its transparent OLED screen that sits over the internal mechanical workings.

It should be noted that it's not the thinnest of smartwatches -- our wearables expert Scott Stein described it as "ridiculously thick."

The Kairos packs in an ARM Cortex M4 processor, but the company says it's working on an Intel-powered model as well.

The TOLED has 40 percent transparency, but is capable of RGB full-colour displays.

The model on display at MWC had a demo loop running with fake notifications but was otherwise a fully functional model.

The Kairos not only has a touch sensor, but also a three-axis accelerometer with gesture detection and a gyroscope.

While the watch only packs 180mAh battery, Kairos says that the nature of the TOLED screen means you'll get a lot of life from a battery that size -- 5-7 days on a single charge, apparently.

The Kairos runs its own operating system, imaginatively called Kairos OS. (Not KairOS? Seems a waste.) Kairos says the watch will work with iOS, Android and even poor, old, mostly neglected Windows.

If you're into the mechanical watch side of things, Kairos has two different types of movement depending on whether you're paying for Japanese or Swiss made models.

Those movements are: a Miyota 82S7, 42-hour power reserve automatic movement, running 21,600 bph, and with 21 jewels.

Or the Soprod A10BV-2 Swiss Automatic Movement, running 28,800 bph, with 25 jewels and a 42-hour power reserve.

While it's a little hard to tell from the photos, the notifications overlay is bright and easy to read.

The demo showed off Twitter notifications from "Arnold Scharz" and "Barrack" as well as the weather.

Music got a look-in as well, the demo showing controls and track information for a music player.

The nigh-ubiquitous fitness information -- step count, calories and the like -- were also present.

The band is standard 22mm, so the Kairos can take any band you feel like purchasing.

As we said before, it's not a watch for small wrists. The Kairos sits 16.5mm high, which is quite frankly enormous.

Unlike, say, the LG G Watch R, the crown on Kairos is a function device that's needed to set the mechanical watch parts.

If you're not a fan of the black look, Kairos offers a big range of colours and styles across its two models.

Kairos received an honourable mention in the Red Dot design awards last year.

For people unsold on smartwatches, the Kairos might be the middle ground of tradition and innovation that they've been looking for.

As a complete aside, Kairos is a Greek word meaning the "perfect time" or an "opportune moment."