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Fossil announces a slew of branded hybrid analog and Android Wear watches at Baselworld 2017

Fossil announces a slew of branded hybrid analog and Android Wear watches at Baselworld 2017

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The Basselworld 2017 watch show is here, and the Fossil Group (an overarching company that makes watches for a slate of fashion brands, including Armani, DKNY, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Skagen, and of course, Fossil’s own) announced its upcoming slate of Android Wear smartwatches and hybrid watches. More than 300 styles across 14 brands in total.

The Android Wear 2.0 watches will all feature similar hardware on the technology side, with AMOLED screens and Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processors. These include new Android Wear watches from Diesel (Holiday 2017), Emporio Armani (September), and Michael Kors (Holiday 2017). A pair of new Fossil-branded options will also be released this fall — the Q Venture and Q Explorist — which the company claims are its “slimmest” smartwatches yet. Obviously, the style of the actually watch depends heavily on which brand you choose — Diesel’s are predictably bulky, while the Michael Kors models take a more bedazzled approach. Each brand will have its own themed “micro-app” designed in line with the overall identity of the specific company.

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Along with the new smartwatches are a slew of hybrid watches. Fossil isn’t offering too many details on the hybrid’s functionality, but they’ll all offer some form of smart technology like allowing for notifications while still maintaining a more traditional analog style. And unlike the Android Wear models, these watches are powered by traditional coin cell batteries. While many of them may bear expensive designer names, it’s worth keeping in mind that these are still just dressed up Fossil watches (which are perfectly fine, if somewhat unambitious when it comes to internal movements and hardware.)

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The new Diesel On smartwatch will be priced from $325 when it goes on sale in the US. Otherwise, Fossil hasn’t announced specific pricing or release details for the rest of its portfolio, but all are expected to land sometime before the end of the year.