Fossil Q
R2 999 to R4 999 at watchrepublic.co.za
Four stars
It can show you when you have a text, call or email; alert you to social-media and app notifications; remind you of calendar entries, toggle your playlist; act as a shutter button for your phone camera; calculate your commute time; and count your steps. Oh, and it tells the time.
The problem with smartwatches is that they’re usually not great in the looks department, and always look kind of sporty and reminiscent of digital watches from the 90s.
To counter this, Fossil recently brought out their new Q range – a sort of hybrid device that combines the beauty of an analog time piece with some smartwatch features. Tech writer Nafisa Akabor tells me they’re called “connected watches”.
I tested one of them – an elegant camel and rose gold specimen called the Fossil Q Tailor (R3 999), and quickly downloaded the app on my Nokia 8 so that I could start using its smart features.
The watch connects with your phone using Bluetooth, and it shows you when you have a notification by the hands moving to predesignated positions on the clock face. So, for instance, I set it to go to the 12 o’clock position when I had a WhatsApp message, and 3 o’clock when I had an email. It has three buttons on the side that you can customise too. The buttons can, for instance, take photos, show the date, or show your activity progress.
For a connected watch, the price isn’t too outrageous (ranging from R2 999 to R4 999), and it comes in men’s, women’s and unisex styles, with plenty of interchangeable bands.
While the watch body is a little thicker and bulkier than most analogue watches (probably to support a bigger battery), the Q Tailor still looks elegant and slim.