Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M

UX discussion here. Is there any UX&#x2F;design&#x2F;functional reason to have a round watch face on a smartwatch? Analog watches were round to fit the display technology available at the time, the watch dial, which is inherently round. RGB pixel displays are naturally rectangular.<p>My wife thinks that even the smallest latest Apple Watch is way too large for a watch. I wonder if there&#x27;s some matter of comfort in a relatively flat backed round form factor for a watch? A relatively thick rectangle with a rounder back is going to have a center of mass that is further away from the wrist. It comprises a very small cantilever, which is still quite large on the scales of the traditional watch. (By something like a factor of 3 or so.) The slightly taller rectangular shape will also tend to funnel the motion such a cantilever experiences in an arc parallel to the forearm. None of this was at all an issue for most traditional watches, simply because they were much flatter.<p>Something has always bothered me about Apple Watches when trying them out in the store, and I think it&#x27;s this. They&#x27;re not bulky, but there&#x27;s something about them which seems to keep them from disappearing from my awareness. Even my dad&#x27;s old Rolex, which isn&#x27;t huge, but isn&#x27;t small for a watch, seems to sit on my wrist more comfortably. Even the Tag Heuer, which I think is a bit too big, seems to sit more comfortably on my wrist. Even the big old school watches just didn&#x27;t have this stick-out-y character.

Didn&#x27;t Fossil buy Misfit for like $200M to start its smartwatch department?

I love my Fossil Q because it does one thing many other smart watches just don&#x27;t: tells the time, all the time, no motion required, in a high contrast fashion.<p>All I really want out of a watch is that, plus long battery life (weeks at least, months preferably), self-charging, self-time setting, and, if I am lucky, some sort of &quot;hey look at your phone&quot; alert.<p>I get most of these with the Fossil Q. Others with my Citizens and Seiko non-smart watches, one of which has an e-ink display. Nothing has them all. Oh well.<p>I wonder if Google will make a Fossil Q which has it all. I do not need a display, health monitoring, etc.

Patents? If I remember correctly, Fossil launched one of the first smart watches, running Palm OS.

damn FOSL really need the cash huh? $40M and they said yes!?

Is anyone satisfied with their Fossil watch? I have a Fossil Q Explorist and it&#x27;s so slow and laggy that I almost wonder if I got a lemon. It takes like 3 taps to click or swipe before anything registers. I&#x27;m pretty sure my original Moto 360 is faster. I only wear it because it looks decent and occasionally works. I really wanted to like it, but my experience has just been ... bad.

So...more WearOS Fossils or more Fossil-y WearOS?

Hopefully it&#x27;s to get more control over the hardware, especially the chipset. Qualcomm is dragging down WearOS with their glacial pace and underwhelming commitment to the platform.

Case study: Sailfish Watch <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.jolla.com&#x2F;watch&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.jolla.com&#x2F;watch&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sailfish_smartwatch" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sailfish_smartwatch</a>

Fossil out-teched Google?

Hopefully this means that my Fossil Q Wander is going to be on the cutting edge of Google&#x27;s software updates now. Big fan of this watch by the way, only complaint is that it doesn&#x27;t led itself to workouts as well as some other watches.

I feel real good about my Fossil Sport :)<p>Impressive to see Google&#x27;s aggressive push into the hardware market. Here&#x27;s to hoping that a Pixel watch is good enough to set a bench mark like what the Nexus&#x2F;Pixel phones have done.

There&#x27;s a good chance they&#x27;ll run it into the ground.

Try for fitbit

40MM doesn’t sound like a huge deal for Google but I still cannot fathom why they would purchase this. I’d rather have a pimple on my forehead than a fossil smartwatch on my wrist.<p>An appropriate name for Google’s smartwatch line would be “caprolite”, which means fossized excrement.