Fossil has been around since 1984, specializing in clothing and accessories. They make some of the coolest wristwatches on the market, and they’re about to step up their game even more. They’ve recently announced their Connected Wristwatch line, a series of wristwatches that are able to connect to your phone via Bluetooth for various bits of information and notifications. Currently these watches are able to connect to Android-powered smartphones, as well as BlackBerries, which are two awesome platforms to start with. BlackBerry support gives Fossil’s Connected Wristwatches availability to the Enterprise market, while the Android platform is increasingly popular with consumers and ‘normobs’.
It appears as though Fossil will be releasing an entire lineup in the future, with a few different form factors to choose from. For starters, they’ll have watches that look like normal wristwatches, with the addition of small LCD screens that can show information somewhat like a stock ticker. I previously had a chance to check out one of Sony Ericsson’s Bluetooth wristwatches that behaved like this, and it’s a really handy extra, that’s for sure. Another one would see the entire face of the watch as a display, and you could obviously get more rich information from this – full weather forecasts, photo caller ID, email previews, etc. Quite handy for someone who is constantly on the go, as you could simply glance at your wrist to see what your phone is buzzing about – no need to fumble through your pockets.
The best part of these new Fossil watches is that they’re anticipating a $200 launch price – that’s nicely affordable, especially compared to the $400-500 that Sony Ericsson was asking for their earlier units. Fossil is also one of the pioneers of customizable fashion-oriented wristwatches. You can go to their store and pick out your watch face, then choose from a seemingly endless array of watch bands and other accessories to build your own unique watch.
I’ll most definitely be keeping an eye on this, and will hopefully be able to review one of these watches when they come available. In the meantime, Fossil spent some time with Robert Scoble, so you can check out the audio below for more on these cool watches.
This is another awesome example of technology enriching and enabling real life. By putting the information from your phone on your wrist, Fossil is converting quite a bit of data into glanceable information. The benefits here are endless, and because Fossil is behind it, these watches are sure to look great, as well.
Ricky Cadden 
2 thoughts on “Fossil Is Rehashing The Connected Wristwatch”