Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

These Fossil Group watches are among the most stylish Android Wear wearables yet

Kyle Wiggers
By

fossil
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
A barrage of Android Wear-powered smartwatches are on the way, and Fossil Group is leading the charge. At IFA 2017 in Berlin, the sprawling fashion empire announced a “massive expansion” of its wearables lineup across brands like Diesel, Emporio Armani, Michael Kors, Misfit, Relic, Skagen, Michele, and Tory Burch.

“Today our wearables segment is the fastest-growing part of our business,” Greg McKelvey, chief strategy and digital officer at Fossil Group, said in a statement. “Clearly, this distinct combination of the best design and the best tech is winning with fashion-conscious customers who were long neglected by other wearable brands.”

Recommended Videos

Fossil highlighted the Diesel On Full Guard, a smartwatch collection that’s on pre-sale now, and launches on September 25; and the new Emporio Armani watch, which features 11 interchangeable leather, silicone, and stainless steel straps and goes on sale September 14. The Misfit Vapor, a music-playing, swim-proof (up to 5ATM) wearable with a heart rate monitor, hits store shelves in October, and new Michael Kors Access touchscreen watches ship on September 25.

Related
fossil
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Fossil’s giving old watches a fresh coat of paint — and making them available more places. The Fossil Q Venture and Fossil Q Explorist, Fossil’s first full-round touchscreen smartwatches, are now available in new styles, and the Michael Kors Access Sofie and Access Grayson touchscreen smartwatches are now on sale in hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores globally.

By the end of 2017, Fossil says it will have launched more than 300 watches across 14 of its brands.

Every watch in Fossil’s late 2017/early 2018 collection will run Google’s Android Wear 2.0, the company said, which is fully compatible with both Android and iOS phones. As with other Android Wear watches on the market, you can download apps from the Google Play Store and swap digital dial designs, color combinations, and watch faces.

fossil
Michael Kors
Michael Kors

Fossil credits its success to close collaboration with Google.

“Our partnership with Fossil Group has been a driving force for the growth of Android Wear’s device portfolio, which has allowed us to offer users choices and diversity,” David Singleton, vice president of Android engineering at Google, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to continue the partnership into 2018 and implement new ways to connect fashion and technology, leveraging the flexibility of Android Wear and the design capabilities of Fossil Group and its brands.”

Fossil says its connected devices division doubled in size the last 12 months alone, and that its watches are now active in 50 countries and 20 languages.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kyle Wiggers
Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
The Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 is classy, but costs as much as an Apple Watch
Emporio Armani Connected

Emporio Armani is back with a new smartwatch dubbed the Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3. It's hardly a catchy name, but it joins several new Wear OS smartwatches in bringing features such as a speaker, an updated processor, and a new style.

Despite a thick body -- coming in at 12mm -- the Emporio Armani Smartwatch 3 has a minimalist design with some colorful visual flair. The black 44mm, stainless steel case is flanked with lugs that add a pop of color, including yellow, blue, and silver. There are also a few different band choices, but it's interchangeable too so you can swap in any 22mm strap. On the right edge of the case are three buttons.

Read more
The Diesel On Axial might be the most unique-looking Wear OS smartwatch to date
Diesel On Full Guard 2.5 Hands-on Review

Smartwatches running Google's Wear OS platform are aplenty, and the family is getting even bigger with the launch of the Diesel On Axial, which marries a masculine and bold design with Google's smarts.

The On Axial isn't Diesel's first foray into the world of smartwatches -- there's the Diesel On Full Guard and the On Full Guard 2.5 to contend with. But the latest does have its own distinct style. It maintains a strong build with a stainless steel casing, with a few different color combinations -- gunmetal, silver, and bronze -- and fresh strap options: black leather, blue denim, and gunmetal stainless steel. This watch still maintains the classic Diesel ethos of being oversized and massive though, coming in at 12mm thick and 44mm wide, and there are three rugged buttons on the right edge of the case.

Read more
Google is buying mysterious smartwatch tech from The Fossil Group for $40 million
Fossil Sport Review

The Fossil Group, which owns and partners with brands like Misfit, Fossil, and Kate Spade to create smartwatches and other accessories, has agreed to sell select smartwatch technology to Google for $40 million. The research and development team behind this intellectual property from the Fossil Group is also joining Google as a part of the transaction.

It's currently unclear what kind of technology is being sold here. According to a statement from Fossil, the company has built a technology that "has the potential to improve upon its existing platform of smartwatches," which is pretty vague. What all of this likely means is if Google decides to launch a new smartwatch, it could house this technology inside -- which quite possibly hasn't been seen in any other device at the moment. A report from Wareable notes that the tech has evolved from Fossil's acquisition of Misfit.

Read more