Fossil's Massive Smartwatch Launch Part of Convergence to Connectivity, It Says
In a follow-up to its 300 Baselworld jewelry show watch introductions Thursday, Fossil Group Senior Director Kyle Beste emailed us that the company is eyeing three opportunities in the connected watch space: activity trackers, touch-screen smartwatches and hybrid smartwatches “that…
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look like a regular watch but act like a smartwatch.” New for 2017 are an improved user interface, AMOLED screens, more frequent dial updates and third-party apps made possible by Android Wear 2.0, Beste said. Hybrid designs allow discreet notifications of texts, emails and phone calls through haptic feedback and hand movement on the dials, said Beste. The watches automatically set the time zone and have link technology to allow users to control music, take a selfie and ring a phone, he said. Activity trackers, hybrid smartwatches and touch-screen smartwatches address the various needs and personal styles of connected consumers represented by each brand, and Fossil’s technology platform is “reinvigorating” each category by improving design and functionality, he said. Despite the common platform, brand teams operate “completely independently, with designers dedicated to individual brands,” Beste said. Each of the 300 watch models for 2017 introduced across the company’s 14 brands was an individual project with each licensor and “uniquely developed to be in line with the brand's DNA and target consumer,” he said. On Fossil Group’s road map for connectivity within its overall portfolio, Beste said, “We sell 30 million watches a year and we see more of a convergence of our analog and connected products than a shift from one to the other.” He wouldn’t specify a time frame for a complete transition from analog to connected, but said, “We do envision a day when every watch we make will have some type of connectivity in it.”