Review on ⌚ Fossil Collider Hybrid Smartwatch HR - Always-On Display, Heart Rate Monitoring, Activity Tracking, Smartphone Alerts, Message Previews by Ryan Dillon

I recently upgraded from Withings Steel HR Sport to Fossil Collider HR. These are beautiful watches. I work in an office where all my colleagues are proud of their watches. I'm glad this display compares well to its premium analog counterparts. The e-ink display does the job perfectly! The resolution and contrast aren't quite on par with the Kindle Paperwhite, but I was still satisfied. Some other perks I like is a clean interface on the watch itself. When a notification arrives, it's always easy to read and dismiss. All tracking stats appear to be accurate. Sleep tracking, steps, heart rate, etc. all show up on my dashboard, just the way I like it (although I haven't tested HR or step accuracy, I trust Fossil for that). Also the sedentary reminder feature is welcome as I sit in the office most of the day. The companion app leaves a lot to be desired (especially after using the Withings Health Mate app for so long). . The data is presented nicely, but it doesn't feel that useful. I've found that I prefer to connect the Fossil app to Google Fit and then use Google Fit as my primary interface for viewing my information. Notifications suck. There are only a few select apps that send notifications from my Samsung S10e to my watch: Google Calendar, Google Fit, Gmail, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat, Weibo, and Line. I use Microsoft Teams and Outlook for work. I wish I could get these notifications on my watch too. Finally, the physical "party tricks" don't work as well as I had hoped. Double tapping the watch face to turn on the backlight works about 60% of the time. In my opinion, wiggling my wrist to move the minute and hour hands (so I can read the full text of the notification) works 75% of the time. Also, there have been a couple of times over the past few days that I've received a "reminder to move" when I was running just a few minutes ago. Overall, however, I think this is an incredible product. This is the best spot for the hybrid smartwatch I've been waiting for. I have no doubt that most of the problems I encounter are software related and can be fixed within the next few months. If you want to wear a second smartphone on your wrist, you have to look at the Samsung Galaxy Watch or Apple Watch. However, if you want a more classy, professional-looking device with all the stat-tracking capabilities of traditional smartwatches, I think you'll be happy with this purchase.