Feeling old school about timepieces does not mean you cannot enjoy the benefits a smartwatch has to offer. You still can, if you have Fossil hybrid smartwatches. Hybrid smartwatches are, as the name implies, are smartwatches that still bear the traditional watch face. Meaning, it does not have the smartwatch requisite touch display, but everything else under the hood is anything but traditional, well, mostly. If you think LCD display on your wrist will wreck your fashion sense, then the new Q wearables’ hybrid smartwatches are for you. Four new hybrid smart timepieces were introduced late last month which comprises of Q Nate, Q Crewmaster, Q Gazer and Q Tailor.
As far as look goes, these new Q hybrids look exactly like regular watches, but the seemingly ordinary dial face are circuitry and sensors that enable activity tracking, sleep monitoring, along with functions like automatic time zone, second time zone, alarm, custom goal setting, and filtered notifications with vibration and dial animations. I know, it is hard to imagine the latter, but it is how these ordinary looking smartwatches work to tell you something’s on on your smartphone. Like before, a simple push of the bottom pusher lets you ring your phone if you can’t find it, or remotely snap a photo or control music.
Being a hybrid and without a touch display, those are about what it can offer but if you are not fussy, those should enough to have your smartwatch needs covered. The battery, according to Fossil, is good for up to 6 months or thereabout, depending on usage, and when if it conks out, you can just swap a fresh coin cell battery to keep it going, much like you would do with a regular watch. Also, it has Bluetooth. No WiFi though, and it works with both Android and iOS devices. Prices start at $175 for these new hybrid smartwatches and they will be available for pre-order, starting September 14, 2016. However, if hybrid doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can look to two other new full-fledged smartwatches, Q Marshall and Q Wander.
First announced at this’s Baselworld, the duo sports a classically-styled aesthetic and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100. This means the duo, despite being smartwatches, boasts always wake touchscreens (so are the sensors) to mimic actual watches but burning up precious battery power. Both wearables sport a 45mm case and run on Android Wear and boasts specs like 4GB flash storage, a 360 mAh battery good for a day’s usage, wireless charging, wireless sync with your handset, IP67-rated construction, built-in LED flashlight, built-in microphone and speaker, supports voice input, automatic timezone update, alarm clock, outside temperature sensing, activity tracker, and of course, touch display.
The Fossil Q Marshall and Fossil Q Wander are available online as we speak, priced at $295 a pop.
