The Fossil name is one that the fashion world has known for a long time, and while their audience has traditionally been one of a younger age, the firm also makes watches on behalf of some of the biggest fashion brands and fashion houses all over the world, similar to the way that Italy’s Luxottica create sunglasses for the likes of Prada and co. Fossil is no stranger to the world of wearables, having jumped into the emerging market with their Q line of devices, including fitness trackers, full-blown Android Wear smartwatches and hybrid smartwatches. That last segment is one that appears to be catching on, as the smartwatch market fails to secure mainstream success, watch brands are now trying jtheir hand at offering analog watches people know and love, with a little something extra on the inside.
Now, the majority of brands which Fossil makes watches for have some sort of hybrid smartwatch model available. They started this off with their own brand, launching the Fossil Q Grant last year, which was an analog watch with fitness tracker and vibrations to let you know of an incoming call or message. The Fossil Group creates watches for a lot of brands, such as Chaps, Diesel, Emporio Armani and the ever-popular Michael Kors. Each of these brands that have a hybrid smartwatch on offer have something tailored to their brand, something that the other brands might not have. The Emporio Armani watches, for instance, have a programmable second time zone option, which will appear on the watch face once configured by a separate app for that brand. All of the watches will have an accelerometer for tracking steps as well as sleep, should the user wish to wear their watch to bed. Fossil isn’t messing around here, and will even offer up the individual apps for each brand in the Baidu app store, so that Chinese customers – who don’t have access to the Play Store – will be able to use them on Android and Android derivatives.
The idea behind this push from the Fossil Group is for these respected brands to offer something their customer bases will recognize, but also something that will bring in a younger audience looking for something more than a simple watch. Pricing is also taken into consideration, as these hybrid watches are often less expensive than full-blown smartwatches, thus lowering the barrier for entry.
