New designer smartwatches are coming soon from Fossil, if listings on the FCC’s website are to be believed. Some detective work by droid-life.com suggests the watches will be released under the Diesel, Michael Kors, Emporio Armani, and the Fossil brand names. Fossil is responsible for all these designer smartwatches, along with models from Kate Spade, Skagen, and Misfit.
The FCC is certifying the new watches for use with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and therefore isn’t revealing much about the specifications and nothing about the designs — which are the most important aspects of a smartwatch. What we can see is a selection of model numbers, all of which begin with DW10, followed by another letter that signifies the brand name associated with the watch.
From this, it’s possible to speculate what models will be released. A new Fossil watch (DW10F1) is likely coming, which may be a follow-up to the excellent Fossil Sport, along with a new Diesel watch (DW10D1), a new Emporio Armani (DW10E1), and a pair of new smartwatches featuring the Micheal Kors name (DW10M1 and DW10M2).
Why two Micheal Kors smartwatches? Fossil already prepares two models for the fashion brand, under the Access Runway and the Access Sofie model names, with the latter being better suited to masculine wrists — although it’s a unisex watch — than the more delicate Sofie. A new Diesel smartwatch is exciting, as the On Full Guard 2.5 is one of the best-looking smartwatches you can buy today. Finally, we’re hoping for a continuation of the previous standout design from the new Emporio Armani model, too.
However, while looks are very important, the underlying technology needs to change on Fossil’s new smartwatches to keep them up to date. All models released in 2018, except the Fossil Sport, use the old Snapdragon 2100 processor. Although the new Snapdragon 3100 chip isn’t a colossal leap forward, it is an improvement and does allow for more RAM, resulting in better performance. This is essential if these new watches are to be not only an advance over last year’s versions but also worth buying.
The FCC listing suggests it won’t be long before these new smartwatches are officially revealed. Fossil spread its announcements out over the summer last year, and most were seen for the first time at the IFA technology show in Berlin in September. It’s highly likely the company will follow the same pattern this year.
