At the Only Watch Auction on November 9, Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime sold at a record price. At 31 million Swiss francs, the Grandmaster Chaim is the most expensive watch ever made. The auction shows that Swiss watches still offer a premium and time savings are a valuable profession. However, for a large part, the clock’s light was losing its luster.
The industry expects technology companies to enter to replace it. But, in fact, it is not so. The Apple Watch made its debut in 2014, and was expected to revolutionize the watches. Five years later, I believe the Apple Watch is great but the rest of the tech companies have failed. After wearing the Fossil Gen 5 Carlile HR on my wrist for about three weeks, I am certain about it.
When Pebble started its Kickstarter campaign, it looked like wearable computers would become the next big thing. With the Apple Watch, Cupertino showed that it is possible to have a computer on your wrist. It has become almost inevitable that Google will follow and make Android the platform for non-Apple wearables. However, the retreat of the industry can be described hereafter.
Motorola and LG announced their exit from the smartwatch market. Samsung ate Android Wear for its Tizen OS. Huawei also turned away from Google. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its first smartwatch this month. Enter American fashion and manufacturing brand Fossil.
This has given Google’s wearable operating system a new lease of life. This latest wearable – Fossil Gen 5 Carlile HR – wants to be the best wearable in the market. this is? Can it compete with Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch. let’s find out.
Design and performance
The Fossil Gen 5 Carlile HR is one of the best looking smartwatches. It has a circular watch face that conforms to the traditional watch design. There is a protruding element for the heart-rate sensor at the base of the clock, which means that it does not remain flat on the surface.
Our review unit comes in a black case with a thickness of approximately 12 mm. There are also alternatives to black or smoky stainless steel case. Our review unit is with black silicone case, but I would recommend getting the stainless steel version instead. The Smoke Stainless Steel and Black Silicon variants are priced at Rs 22,995.
Since this watch uses a standard 22mm single prong strap buckle, it becomes easy to choose an optional strap from a local store. 22mm straps are common in the industry, you get many options to customize the watch. The silicone strap that came with our review unit seemed less comfortable to wear and easily attracted dust.
I have washed the silicone strap several times since I found it. The smartwatch is water resistant up to 3ATM, which means it is safe to use under a depth of 30 meters. While you can safely go for swimming, it is not recommended for activities such as scuba diving.
At the front, you get a 1.28-inch display with a resolution of 4mm × 416 pixels, which is inside the case size of 44mm. This is the most comfortable size for a watch of this size. It fits perfectly on my middle wrist and looks very clean. However, the display is not the smartest I’ve seen on a smartwatch.
If you set the display brightness to automatic, it becomes very difficult to read under direct sunlight. In comparison, inexpensive smartwatches like the Amazfit GTS provide a great display that is easy to read under direct sunlight. While Fossil has created a mode called Sunlight Boost, it does not make much difference.
I set the brightness automatically throughout my test, there were times when I manually changed it to level 3. If Fossil starts working on the successor on 5 January, a brighter display in terms of priority should be on top. On the case, there is a revolving crown and two pushers.
Pushers on the Gen 5 Carlile HR are not as effective as they say on the Coronograph. The top pusher opens fossil movements, while the lower pusher takes you on activity tracking. Both pushers are customizable.
The best part of this design, however, is the revolving crown. Since the entire interface of Ware OS is vertical in layout, the Taj makes it easy to navigate. The response offered by Mukut is really good and it works like a charm all the time.
To the left is a speaker, which can be used to listen, music or make phone calls to Google Assistant. My primary watch is the Casio Edifice and when I switched to the Fossil Gen 5 Carlile HR, the experience was effortless. I got an almost identical fit on my wrist and I could use a chronograph-style watch face to replicate the features.
There are many watch faces to choose from, but the misfit did not work. I eventually settled on the Tag Heuer Carrera Watch Face available on the Feser app. I would say that the Fossil Gen 5 Carlile HR is one of the best looking smartwatches in the market.