Hands on with the SKAGEN Falster 2: built-in GPS, heart rate monitor, and NFC

When SKAGEN launched the original Falster smartwatch at CES earlier this year, I was enamored, then torn. It was, in my opinion, the prettiest Wear OS watch on the market, but it came with some huge caveats: no NFC for on-the-go payments, no built-in GPS, and no heart rate sensor. To make up for those omissions, SKAGEN announced the Falster 2 at IFA 2018, and it pretty much fixes everything we disliked about the original watch. 

That’s right — the Falster 2 comes with all the things mentioned above: an NFC chip for use with Google Pay, built-in GPS, and a heart rate sensor. It’s swim-proof down to 30m, too, so you can jump in the pool or take a shower without ruining it. It’s a much more powerful watch than the original, and it’s finally up there with most other Wear OS watches on the market.

Just because it has a heart rate sensor and GPS, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want to use this as your main fitness tracking device. It’s a classy smartwatch, and not one that I’d personally want to wear to the gym. Plus, it’s powered by the soon-to-be-shunned Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, which isn’t exactly known for its battery-saving features.

The design is very similar to the original Falster, except now the watch has more buttons on the side. Not only does it have a rotating dial to navigate around the new Wear OS interface, it has two programmable buttons to quick-launch your most used functions.

The SKAGEN Falster 2 launches on September 12 for $275/269 pounds. It’ll be available in multiple color combinations (most of which are shown above), with leather and magnetic steel mesh strap options.

We’ll have more details for you later on in September when we get one in for review.