Fossil goes full-in on Android Wear, 300 connected watches planned for this year

Smartwatches haven’t really been selling as well as manufacturers would like, but that isn’t stopping Fossil Group from releasing new models. At Baselworld 2017, a watch industry trade show currently taking place in Switzerland, the company announced it would launch more than 300 connected watches (full touchscreen and hybrid models) across 14 of its brands in 2017. These include Armani Exchange, Michael Kors, SKAGEN, Diesel, DKNY, and Marc Jacobs, among others.

Fossil did not provide specific information regarding its upcoming smartwatches but did mention that all the touchscreen models will feature AMOLED displays, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, and will run the latest Android Wear 2.0. Some of the watches we can expect to see are the Diesel On, Michael Kors Access Sofie (for women) and Access Grayson (for men) as well as the Fossil Q Venture and Q Explorist, which will be the brand’s slimmest smartwatches to date.

In addition to the traditional touchscreen smartwatches, the company will also launch a bunch of hybrid watches. What this means is that they will be analog, but will still connect with your smartphone and let you know when you receive a text, a call, or a notification, among others. Fossil hasn’t shared a lot of details regarding these watches, so we’ll have to wait until they are released to find out exactly which features they offer.

Obviously, not all of the upcoming connected watches from Fossil will be released at the same time. We can expect to see the first ones hit the market in the summer months, while others will go on sale in Fall 2017.