Fossil is quitting smartwatches::Fossil is going to stop making smartwatches. It was one of the most prolific companies creating Wear OS watches.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The company announced this afternoon that it would leave the smartwatch business and redirect resources to its less-smart goods instead.
The company has been one of the most prolific makers of Wear OS smartwatches over the years, and its absence will leave a large gap in the market.
“Fossil Group is redirecting resources to support our core strength and the core segments of our business that continue to provide strong growth opportunities for us: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own as well as licensed brand names.”
This shouldn’t come as a huge shock if you’ve been paying attention to Fossil the past few months.
The company regularly put out smartwatches through Wear OS’s toughest years and was often a permanent fixture at CES.
What’s more, Fossil was expected to announce news of a new Gen 7 featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus platform in 2023 — however, it was nothing but crickets the entire year.
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That’s a shame. I really liked my Fossil before I switched to the Apple Watch. It did a fantastic job of looking like a normal watch while still being a decent smartwatch.
That’s precisely why they designed it this way.
What? Can you explain what you mean here or is this just Apple hate?
I find it hard to believe that any company, much less one with such a high reputation for aesthetic, would design something specifically to irk people.
I think it was designed rectangular because it’s easier for smartphone app developers to make watch versions of their apps, easier to display data, and generally fits with the look of the rest of their rounded rectangular products.
As a watch it isn’t as visually appealing, but as a device it’s (arguably) more useful.
I know I’m in the minority, but I switched from a square Android watch (LG G Watch from the neolithic era) to a round watch, and I miss the square. A round screen is awkward for anything but a simple watch face, IMO. I use my new watch much less than my old watch, partly because of this, and I don’t think I’ll ever buy another one.
Visually as a watch design I agree with you. Having used quite a few round face smart watches before getting an Apple Watch I can absolutely see why Apple went with a square face. It just makes way more sense for displaying data. A square space displays more information in a an easier to read format.
I love my pre-smart era Fossil watch. I hope they go back to making classy digital watches again, I would buy another.
Same. Mine is a regular watch with hour and minute hands and a digital read-out in the background that I can turn on and off. It’s nothing fancy, but I wear it with a fat black leather wrist-band which is pleasing to my easily-entertained soul.
I am a simple man in many ways.
That’s sad but at the same time, their QC wasn’t that great, I had a ring fall off of one and the entire back fall off the other.
Damn. Big fan of their hybrid smart watches (e-ink screen, ~10 day battery and looked like a watch).
Anyone know of any good similar products?
I don’t know of any e-ink displays outside of Fossil but give Garmin a try. I use the Vivoactive 4 and get a week+ of battery.
I went from Pebble > Fossil > Garmin.
Watchy which is open source and comes in a build it yourself kit has an e-ink display.
I came across the project before but they don’t have biometric stats that I was looking for.
Garmin are atrocious compared to hybrid watches or the legendary pebble. Had one for like a week before I sent it back, there was so much wrong with it.
Garmin is know for excellent battery life. I don’t think they use e-ink though.
A much bigger drawback (to me at least) they lack Google Pay support and keep pushing Garmin Pay which is not widely supported.
?
Is there really any functional difference which backend is providing that virtual card number? I have never seen a terminal anywhere that A) supported contactless in the first place, but B) did not work with the Garmin Pay feature of my Fenix 6. Even out in the sticks. Not-a-one.
Withings. Small oled display, looks like an analog watch until you use it. Ton of sensors to monitor your health, or none if you don’t want that. And a huge battery. Like huge enough to lose the charger between charges 😆
Another vote for Garmin instinct (2 solar in my case). Not E-ink but oldschool style black/white LCD. Full charge with nightly pulsox is just above 2 weeks, would be 3 if i turned off nightly pulsox. With solar, if you are active outside and have a sunny climate, you probably do not need to charge basically at all.
There is also the instinct crossover for the hybrid look. But first series instincts are supposedly hit or miss on the software. And trust me, the whole analogue watch thing is nice for looks, but really you will not look at it if you have a digital clock on the watch face.
