Skip to main content

The uncomplicated Skagen Signatur Hybrid smartwatch starts at $175

skagen signatur hybrid
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Leave it to the folks at Skagen, the 30-year-old Danish subsidiary of Fossil, to design a sleek, slim, and stylish smartwatch that doesn’t compromise on functionality. The Skagen Signatur Hybrid, the newest in the watchmaker’s Connected family, boasts activity and sleep tracking, tweakable notifications, and hands-free smartphone controls.

“Our goal is to make more wearable products […] both from a hardware and a software perspective, and the Signatur Hybid reflects this,” Frederik Thrane, creative director of design and concept at Skagen, told Cool Hunting. “It is a subtle smartwatch that gives you the information you need, when you need it — not one that floods you with constant notifications and makes you less present.”

That’s apparent from the get-go. The Signatur Hybrid’s iOS and Android app lets you choose which contacts and apps vibrate your watch or assign colored labels to contacts, apps, alarm, date, and time zones. A hands-free mode allows you to program rings, music controls, and your phone’s camera shutter button to the Skagen Signatur Hybrid’s three buttons.

The conveniences don’t stop there. The watch’s auto time and date feature automatically update the Signatur Hybrid to account for traveling, time-zone changes, Daylight Savings Time, and the number of days in any given month, and its activity-tracking features record your steps and sleep cycles.

The Signatur Hybrid doesn’t skimp on design, either. The round watch features a large sub-dial, rounded buttons, and an all-metal unibody that extends to the lugs. It comes in four colors, including silver steel mesh, brown leather with a black dial, olive leather with a gray dial, and black leather with a white dial, and packs a replaceable battery that last up to 6 months.

“Our aspiration has been is to simplify and clarify wherever possible,” Thrane said. “For instance, mesh bands have been a part of Skagen’s designs since the inception of the brand, [so] we are launching the Signatur Hybrid on a mesh band to infuse a familiar design element with a new technology in this watch. That has been a grounding principle since we were founded in 1989.”

The Signatur Hybrid smartwatches are available starting today, with prices on the four styles ranging from $175 to $195. They’re the first of many to come; earlier this year, Skagen promised to launch 19 new hybrid smartwatch styles in 2017.

Editors' Recommendations

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…
Android is still beating the iPhone in a small (but important) way
Android App Timer on Google Pixel 6a and iOS App Limit on iPhone 11.

Our phones, as you know, can sometimes become depthless abysses. Almost everyone has experienced the inconquerable pull of spending hours switching from one social media or entertainment app futilely. And this routine even has a name -- "doomscrolling."

Thankfully, overlords that control the smartphone world, namely Google and Apple, have been conscious of this issue and offer tools that constantly remind you to spare your eyes from the screen and revisit the physical world to replenish your senses.

Read more
Wear OS 4 is coming to your smartwatch this year — here’s what’s new
The main menu screens on the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch 5.

Wear OS is getting a major update with Wear OS 4, and with it, Google's promising a big improvement to the overall smartwatch experience.

Announced today at Google I/O 2023, Wear OS 4 is adding a slew of new features on both a system level as well as an individual app level, meaning that smartwatch owners will be able to have a more streamlined and productive experience when using their devices.

Read more
Apple and Google are teaming up to make tracking devices less creepy
Apple AirTag lifestyle image.

Apple and Google are partnering to develop a new standard for Bluetooth tracking devices that seeks to stop malicious stalking and other abusive use of gadgets like the Apple AirTag. Essentially, this would be a universal, OS-level tracker detection and alert system that will work uniformly across Android and iOS. The two companies are inviting stakeholders to review the proposal and submit their feedback within the next three months.

Once the feedback period is over, all the involved parties will work together to finalize the technical standardization, with the hope of releasing a market-ready version by the end of the year. Following the release and adoption by makers of tracking devices, the tech will be generally made available via a software update for Android and iOS devices.
Better late than never

Read more