Revisiting Fossil hybrid smartwatches:
Fossil has come quite a distance since the debut of its first hybrid smartwatches in 2015. The thing that was once a tiny endeavor with just a small number of devices has grown to take over the majority of the brands under Fossil Group. Michael Kors, Diesel, Kate Spade, Emporio Armani, Skagen, and others all have hybrid smartwatches under their accessory umbrellas that talk with each brand's style.
It's not just the numbers and designs of the smartwatches that have evolved in the last number of years. Fossil's Q platform has additionally changed to serve the requirements of its users. The Q app was previously fairly limited, with a few customizable alerts and basic activity information. Now, there's more that hybrid smartwatch users can do with Q, and lots of the new additions make the hybrid smartwatches much smarter than they seem on the outside.
Design overview
Right from the start, Fossil was in an excellent position to explore wearable technology. As a style company, it already had blueprints for different watch styles. Those could (and would eventually) be adapted into hybrid and full-on smartwatches. The new Fossil watch I tested could be the Q Commuter, a unisex model with a 42mm silver case and a 22mm dark brown leather band. Like the remaining portion of the company's hybrid smartwatches, the Q Commuter includes a built-in accelerometer for activity tracking and a separate subeye that shows activity goal progress through the day. Its three physical side buttons may be programmed to accomplish various functions, and the built-in vibration motor lets the device buzz when you're receiving an alert (it doesn't make any sounds). It runs on a typical watch battery that may be replaced, however it can last about 6 months before you've to displace it.
Besides battery life, the appeal of hybrid smartwatches is their design—the Q Commuter looks like any other traditional watch and has nearly exactly the same design while the "regular" Commuter style that Fossil sells. Its $155 price isn't much distinctive from the standard model: there's only 1 hybrid Commuter smartwatch, but the standard Commuter has different case and band material options that make it range in price from $95 to $155.
Device settings
Shortcuts
In 2015, Fossil Q devices were fairly limited in comparison to these new devices. Watches and bracelets could track activity and hook up to third-party fitness apps, receive notifications and alerts through tiny flashes of light and watch hand movements, and present new "Q Curiosity" challenges daily in the companion app. With the updated app, the gimmicky curiosity feature is gone and the focus is currently on-watch controls and notification management.
The Q Commuter has three side buttons, so you can program three "shortcuts" to them. Shortcuts are simple features that only take the press of a button to initiate, making them easy to customize and program to the watch's side buttons. Some are very basic, like pressing one button to show your smartphone's music volume up or down. But other shortcuts are harder yet simple enough for an analog watch. Like, you are able to program among the side buttons to begin a stopwatch, that'll move the hands of the watch and soon you press the button again to stop it. The "mode toggle" control enables you to cycle through most of the subeye features and check different shortcuts at once.
One of the very complicated shortcuts is "commute time," that'll force the watch hands to show you the arrival or travel time for you to a particular destination. This really is among the few shortcuts that will require one to edit settings in the app—for the commute time shortcut, you should log the address you want to travel to. This is intended to become a place you go frequently like home or work, that way you are able to press the shortcut button on the watch whenever you want to see when you'll arrive to that particular address if you leave your overall location now, or the length of time it will try get there.
Since hybrid smartwatches don't have digital displays, these shortcuts are almost meant to accomplish what smartwatch apps would do on an Android Weardevice or an Apple Watch. The experience might not be as rich as you'd expect from a typical smartwatch, but that's the point. Hybrid smartwatches are designed to keep the analog design of a traditional watch while incorporating some smart features. Which means the controls and use cases may be more nuanced than you first expect and, therefore, take some getting used to.
Yet minus the clarity of a complete digital display, I came across the most straightforward shortcuts to be the easiest to know and the most useful. Music controls offer a quick way to modify the amount of one's smartphone's music without having to be near the device, and the "ring phone" shortcut is ideal for many who constantly misplace their smartphone. I only used the commute time shortcut a few times, mostly because my commute isn't exactly the same every single day and often involves one or more type of public transportation. The commute time shortcut bases its estimations on driving, so it'd are better for anyone constantly in a car.
Presets
A small grouping of three shortcuts can be saved as a predetermined, which allows you to quickly program all three shortcuts to the three side buttons. Presets are supposed to be produced to make sure life scenarios easier by providing you on-watch controls that that you don't need to think about. For instance, the pre-fab Travel preset includes the second time zone, mode toggle, and ring phone shortcuts, arguably the three best shortcuts for when you're traveling.
You could even make presets for different occuring times of your day and switch them out anytime by using the Fossil Q mobile app. Set the music volume shortcuts and the goal tracking shortcut to use through your morning walk, and then switch to the preset like the commute time, mode toggle, and music control shortcuts for the drive to work.
Presets seem to be the long-term use for shortcuts. Initially, it's fun to play around with different shortcuts and switch them out frequently. But with time, users will likely prefer just a couple shortcuts and either keep them assigned to the watch's three buttons constantly or create presets they could switch between at their leisure. While there is a tiny learning curve when you initially use a hybrid smartwatch such as the Q Commuter, Fossil put things in place to help make the "smart" aspects of the device as automated (or set-and-forget) as possible.
Notifications and alerts
Fossil redesigned how its hybrid smartwatch delivers notifications—as opposed to tiny lights and colored windows on the watch's face, now the watches only vibrate and move hands to a specific time. In the app, you can assign contacts and apps to specific numbers so the hands of the watch proceed to that number when you get a specific alert. I assigned calls from one to 12, therefore the watch's hands proceed to that number whenever my smartphone gets a call.
The exact same can be carried out for apps, and Fossil smartwatch alerts support several mobile apps including WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts, Pinterest, Skype, Slack, Snapchat, Spotify, and more. I take advantage of WhatsApp to talk with my boyfriend as opposed to Apple's native Messages app, so I ensured setting WhatsApp to the number 6 so I never missed a text message from him.
Assigning contacts and apps in the Fossil Q app is painfully simple, too. All of the numbers on the watchface are in a grid, and you can tap the number to which you wish to assign the alert. Fossil's revamped notifications system is even easier compared to the shortcut/preset menu since there's little of an understanding curve. Even if some users don't desire to work with shortcuts and presets, it's easy to turn each watch number into a signal for the contacts and smartphone alerts.
I wouldn't recommend assigning an alert to each number, though, because 12 different contacts and apps to consider is just a lot. I only assigned notifications to 12, 3, 6, and 9 and kept it limited to my most used apps and most important contacts.
A hybrid for the smartwatch
age Folks are truly needs to embrace smartwatches such as the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices, but you will have some who don't want to stop that analog watch experience. Regular watches aren't going anywhere, but Fossil is best if you dive into the hybrid smartwatch category therefore it can provide those customers with a "smart" alternative that isn't an absolutely fledged smartwatch.
The updates to the Fossil Q platform ensure it is even easier and more fruitful for people to embrace the thought of a hybrid smartwatch. I'm glad Fossil eliminated the Q Curiosity challenge because it absolutely was basically filler content—something for the organization to stick in the app to encourage more interaction. But as other smartwatches have proven, a function like that is unnecessary. Users mainly interact with a smartwatch companion app to improve and customize settings due to their device, and that's it. Fossil made the Q mobile app better by eliminating the fluff and adding more shortcuts, presets, and notification options so users could quicker make their watches their own. As a wearable replacement your smartphone's lock screen, Fossil's hybrid smartwatches are a lot better than they were a few years ago.
But there's still an understanding curve to the Fossil Q platform—if you will want wearable as you are able to slap on your wrist (with abundant default settings) and go, then hybrid smartwatches aren't for you. Convenience is among the biggest selling points of regular smartwatches such as the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices, as all the information relayed to the watch automatically originates from the smartwatch immediately after setup. Only people who don't mind spending some time learning their watch and customizing the medial side button functions will love wearing a Fossil Q hybrid device.
You could even make presets for different occuring times of your day and switch them out anytime by using the Fossil Q mobile app. Set the music volume shortcuts and the goal tracking shortcut to use through your morning walk, and then switch to the preset like the commute time, mode toggle, and music control shortcuts for the drive to work.
Presets seem to be the long-term use for shortcuts. Initially, it's fun to play around with different shortcuts and switch them out frequently. But with time, users will likely prefer just a couple shortcuts and either keep them assigned to the watch's three buttons constantly or create presets they could switch between at their leisure. While there is a tiny learning curve when you initially use a hybrid smartwatch such as the Q Commuter, Fossil put things in place to help make the "smart" aspects of the device as automated (or set-and-forget) as possible.
Notifications and alerts
Fossil redesigned how its hybrid smartwatch delivers notifications—as opposed to tiny lights and colored windows on the watch's face, now the watches only vibrate and move hands to a specific time. In the app, you can assign contacts and apps to specific numbers so the hands of the watch proceed to that number when you get a specific alert. I assigned calls from one to 12, therefore the watch's hands proceed to that number whenever my smartphone gets a call.
The exact same can be carried out for apps, and Fossil smartwatch alerts support several mobile apps including WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts, Pinterest, Skype, Slack, Snapchat, Spotify, and more. I take advantage of WhatsApp to talk with my boyfriend as opposed to Apple's native Messages app, so I ensured setting WhatsApp to the number 6 so I never missed a text message from him.
Assigning contacts and apps in the Fossil Q app is painfully simple, too. All of the numbers on the watchface are in a grid, and you can tap the number to which you wish to assign the alert. Fossil's revamped notifications system is even easier compared to the shortcut/preset menu since there's little of an understanding curve. Even if some users don't desire to work with shortcuts and presets, it's easy to turn each watch number into a signal for the contacts and smartphone alerts.
I wouldn't recommend assigning an alert to each number, though, because 12 different contacts and apps to consider is just a lot. I only assigned notifications to 12, 3, 6, and 9 and kept it limited to my most used apps and most important contacts.
A hybrid for the smartwatch
age Folks are truly needs to embrace smartwatches such as the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices, but you will have some who don't want to stop that analog watch experience. Regular watches aren't going anywhere, but Fossil is best if you dive into the hybrid smartwatch category therefore it can provide those customers with a "smart" alternative that isn't an absolutely fledged smartwatch.
The updates to the Fossil Q platform ensure it is even easier and more fruitful for people to embrace the thought of a hybrid smartwatch. I'm glad Fossil eliminated the Q Curiosity challenge because it absolutely was basically filler content—something for the organization to stick in the app to encourage more interaction. But as other smartwatches have proven, a function like that is unnecessary. Users mainly interact with a smartwatch companion app to improve and customize settings due to their device, and that's it. Fossil made the Q mobile app better by eliminating the fluff and adding more shortcuts, presets, and notification options so users could quicker make their watches their own. As a wearable replacement your smartphone's lock screen, Fossil's hybrid smartwatches are a lot better than they were a few years ago.
But there's still an understanding curve to the Fossil Q platform—if you will want wearable as you are able to slap on your wrist (with abundant default settings) and go, then hybrid smartwatches aren't for you. Convenience is among the biggest selling points of regular smartwatches such as the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices, as all the information relayed to the watch automatically originates from the smartwatch immediately after setup. Only people who don't mind spending some time learning their watch and customizing the medial side button functions will love wearing a Fossil Q hybrid device.
The Good
Traditional watch designs Months-long battery life Multiple shortcuts to assign to any side buttons Presets allow it to be easy to keep a mix of shortcuts available Fossil Q supports numerous app notifications and alerts
The Bad
More difficult than a regular watch Information from more technical shortcuts could be lost in translation in the analog watch face Plenty of alerts to keep in mind if all watch numbers are assigned to contacts and apps
The Ugly
Never as convenient or robust as full-fledged smartwatch platforms
Traditional watch designs Months-long battery life Multiple shortcuts to assign to any side buttons Presets allow it to be easy to keep a mix of shortcuts available Fossil Q supports numerous app notifications and alerts
The Bad
More difficult than a regular watch Information from more technical shortcuts could be lost in translation in the analog watch face Plenty of alerts to keep in mind if all watch numbers are assigned to contacts and apps
The Ugly
Never as convenient or robust as full-fledged smartwatch platforms
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