If you are in the market for a sub-$300 smartwatch that looks smart, well, then Fossil may have something for you. The American fashion label and probably the biggest maker of fashionable smartwatches has announced two new models under its Gen 5 smartwatch lineup. The Carlyle HR and Juliana HR, as they are called, are both Wear OS-powered wearables with some Fossil touches.
All together, Carlyle HR and Juliana HR offers six styles, three Carlyle HR and three Juliana HR, selling at $295 a piece. The new Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip, backed a generous amount of RAM at 1 GB and a whopping 8 GB of onboard storage.
In addition, it boasts automatic heart rate monitoring during workout and comes pre-loaded with Cardiogram, an app that uses deep neural network technology to keep track of heart rate changes and alert you if it detects signs of sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Perhaps the most interesting feature is answering calls coming to your iPhone. However, this feature will not arrive until this Fall via an app update.
Other worthy mentions include 44 mm stainless steel case, a 1.28-inch OLED screen, rotating power button, interchangeable 22 mm bands, 3 ATM (30 meters or about 100 feet) water resistance, NFC for payment (including Google Pay), support for Google Assistant, built-in microphone and speaker for taking calls and playing music, and a new smart battery mode with four modes to help extend the battery for multiple days.
The Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch is slated to drop on August 26, 2019. It is available for pre-order in the U.S. and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and coming soon to APAC (Asia-Pacific) markets. Though there are no firm dates given for APAC availability.
All images courtesy of Fossil Group.
