Fashion companies embrace Android Wear

March has been a particularly fecund time for new Android Wear watch announcements, though unlike previous years, the brands behind these devices are almost all from the fashion and luxury spheres of business. Tag Heuer, Montblanc, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, Emporio Armani, Michael Kors, and Movado are just some of the well known names announcing Wear 2.0 smartwatches. This wave of new products is symptomatic of a broader trend in the tech industry: one where a high degree of component and software integration has made it almost trivial to launch a new tech product, whether or not you’re actually a tech company.

Maybe this is the right strategy for Android Wear. I’ve definitely seen some nice Wear 2.0 devices for later this year, and we wouldn’t have this much variety if Google had kept Wear 2.0 close to its chest, much like what Apple does with the Apple Watch. If you don’t like a square watch – and which sane person does? – you’re out of luck on Apple’s side of things.

That being said, none of these have actually come out yet, so I’m not holding my breath on any of them being any good. All I want is an understated, simple smartwatch that doesn’t have all this useless garbage like NFC, Wi-Fi, or LTE sucking up battery. I have my eyes on the LG Watch Style for exactly that reason, but they don’t sell it in The Netherlands.

7 Comments

  1. 2017-03-27 7:29 pm
  2. 2017-03-27 7:57 pm
    • 2017-03-27 10:09 pm
    • 2017-03-28 1:05 pm
  3. 2017-03-27 8:19 pm
  4. 2017-03-27 10:27 pm
  5. 2017-03-28 8:57 am