Fossil first announced its intention to jump into wearables back in March. It outlined a strategy that includes a range of devices, some with displays and others without. More recently, it announced that it would launch new Fossil watches “with some added technology features” as early as Q4. CEO Kosta Kartsotis yesterday provided additional details as the company announced its Q2 financial results.
Kartsotis explained during yesterday’s analyst call that Fossil would launch its “initial suite of products” under the Fossil brand in October or November. Additional products for both Fossil and other brands managed by the company will follow in 2016.
First up for Fossil will be a “smarter watch” as well as a smartwatch. The former will look like “a regular analog watch” but will be enhanced with a chip that “measures activity and slope and also has notifications in it.” The latter will be powered by an unspecified version of Android (presumably Android Wear) and will feature a digital display.
As already announced, the first Fossil wearable will be a “smarter watch.” Essentially, it will look like “a regular analog watch” but will be enhanced with a chip that “measures activity and slope and also has notifications in it.” It will work in conjunction with an app that provides the collected information back to the user.
Kartsotis also explained that Fossil’s range of wearables will fall into three broad categories. Along with smartwatches and smarter watches (effectively traditional watches enhanced with some new connected capabilities), Fossil will offer non-display items such as bracelets and other smart jewelry. He appears most bullish about smarter watches, predicting that they will have “the most significant long term” impact on the watch industry. He expects that Fossil will eventually get to a point where “every watch we make will have some type of technology in it.”
As for the company’s latest financial results, Fossil reported that Q2 revenues were down 4% and expected them to fall up to 8% for the whole fiscal year. Without specifically naming any names, Kartsotis attributed at least some of the decline to “the entrance of new competitors.” Recent market research suggests that smartwatches in general and the Apple Watch more specifically are already having an impact on traditional watch sales.
Fossil is not the only company working on the concept of smarter watches. Both the recently introduced Breitling B55 Connected Chronograph and Tag Heuer Carrera Wearable 01 which combine traditional watch looks with connected and tracking capabilities can also be considered smarter watches.
Source : Barron's