Android Wear 2.0 is breaking out at Baselworld. After pushing out the new OS to last year’s watches, Fossil announced two new updates to its Q line, and Guess announced it will be rolling out a new line of Connect wearables with support for Android Wear 2.0. Now we have a couple new Fossil brands that have signed on, including a surprise turn from one of CES’s hottest gadgets.
First up, we have Michael Kors. The follow-up to last year’s Dylan and Bradshaw Access watches, the company has announced two new Android Wear 2.0 variants, the Sophie for women and the Grayson for men. Like the original models, they’re focused on fashion, so no GPS, NFC, LTE, or heart-rate sensors. The Sophie features a thin, lightweight case body with a pavé bezel available in eight different plating-and-bracelet combinations and seven quick-release interchangeable straps. The Grayson has a rotating crown for quick scrolling and will be offered in gold-tone, stainless steel, and blue and black ion-plate, with four interchangeable bands.
Also aboard the Android Wear 2.0 train is Misfit. At CES in January, its Vapor smartwatch was one of the more interesting gadgets on display, mostly because of its proprietary navigation that featured a touch-sensitive bezel. Instead of swiping and scrolling, you move your fingertip over the app icons surrounding the watch face to see live previews. When you find the one you want, you can tap the preview to jump into the app.
While it has switched to Android Wear, Misfit says the touch bezel will still be supported (a first for an Android Wear watch), as well as a unique customizable watch face, GPS, real-time location and activity tracking, and an optical heart-rate sensor. It comes in jet black and rose gold varieties, and will cost $199 when released in late summer.
Pricing wasn’t released for the Michael Kors watches, but the company is targeting a holiday 2017 release.
Watch this space: The Android Wear 2.0 launch isn’t going exactly as we thought it would. The two flagships from LG and Google were underwhelming, and the anticipated Huawei Watch 2 left us equally unimpressed. Now we have a flurry of fashion watches that don't support Android Pay and leave off some of the better fitness benefits. Some day we’ll get the perfect Android Wear 2.0 watch, but for now you’ll need to pick and choose from the features you want and the ones you can live without.
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