Watchmaker Fossil Group this week revealed that it is selling some smartwatch technology it is currently developing to Google. The transaction is valued at $40 million (about CA$53 million). It will see Google acquire both new smartwatch intellectual property and and a portion of Fossil’s R&D team. Greg McKelvey, EVP and chief strategy and digital officer of the Fossil Group, provided little […]
Wearables
Timex and Huami to build smart watches together
Timex may not be a household name when it comes to smartwatches and connected watches but a new partnership could soon change that. The Timex Group will partner with Chinese biometrics company Huami Corp to develop “a new generation of smart watches that deliver on performance, style, craftsmanship and price.” Timex previously developed connected watches like the Timex Metropolitan+, an analogue watch enhanced with […]
Swiss OS smartwatch operating system coming by early 2019
Swiss Swiss watchmaker Swatch has dabbled in the smartwatch space since it introduced the Swatch Touch Zero One touch watch back in 2015. The company now expects to launch its own smartwatch operating system and accompanying watch within months. A spokesperson recently confirmed to Wareable that it would launch by the end of the year or early 2019 at the latest. Swatch Group […]
Fitbit to end Pebble smartwatch support in June 2018
Pebble stopped manufacturing and selling its smartwatches as soon as key personnel and intellectual assets were acquired by Fitbit back in December 2016 for about US$23 million. Support for existing Pebble smartwatch owners continued uninterrupted but the end of the road is now in view. Fitbit has now confirmed that support for Pebble smartwatches will end on June 30, 2018. Pebble […]
ASUS to discontinue its line of ZenWatch smartwatches?
Google may be about to lose one of its original Android Wear hardware partners. The hit-and-miss Digitimes reports that ASUS may be about to discontinue its line of ZenWatch smartwatches due to disappointing sales. According to supply chain sources, ASUS is only shipping between 5,000 and 6,000 units of its ZenWatch family of devices per month. Asus unveiled the original ZenWatch […]
New Tag Heuer Smartwatch collection coming in May
Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver is “satisfied” with sales of the TAG Heuer Connected smartwatch sales so far. Some 56,000 units have been sold since its launch in November 2015. He also confirmed in an interview with Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung that a new collection will be unveiled in May. Biver first mentioned a second generation of Tag Heuer smartwatches back in […]
Android Wear 2.0 to launch in “early February”
When Google announced its decision to delay the launch of Android Wear 2.0 back in late September, it only promised that it would launch sometime in “early 2017.” Thanks to an email sent out to Google Play developers today, we now have a better idea of when this will be. The new version of Android Wear is now scheduled to […]
Fitbit acquires smartwatch maker Vector Watch
The smartwatch market is going through rough times. Plummeting sales have hurt a number of manufacturers. It has also proven to be an opportunity for some other players. Just last month, Fitbit acquired Pebble in a bid “to accelerate the expansion of our platform and ecosystem to make Fitbit a vital part of daily life for a wider set of consumers.” […]