Review on Diesel On Men's Fadelight Gen 4: A Stylish Smartwatch with Heart Rate, GPS, Contactless Pay, and Smartphone Notifications by Christopher Gonzalez

What follows is my test of four WearOS smartwatches. The third is Diesel Fadelight. The value and usefulness of a smartwatch depends on two things: the device and the software. After a few years, I left the Apple ecosystem, so all my latest smartwatches are based on Google's WearOS, an Android-based system. Unlike the closed world of Apple, WearOS is intended to be used by many device manufacturers with different ideas of what these devices should look like. That's an interesting challenge. I currently have four WearOS devices: (1) Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro (2) Skagen Falster 2 (3) Diesel Fadelight (4) Michael Kors Bradshaw. These four devices have three different control configurations and two different screen technologies. Even though they're all WearOS devices, I interact with them in completely different ways. The Ticwatch Pro was one of the first "second generation" smartwatches for WearOS and I understand that Google worked closely with them on this. It's the largest of the four and features a dual-layer screen (a bright, high-resolution color display and a low-power monochrome overlay). This gives it a degree of "always-on" use without the color display draining the battery. It has two pushers and no crown (twist). That means you have to swipe your finger across the screen every time you select a new app or scroll through messages or notifications. It didn't seem like a big deal until I got the Skagen; Since then I almost never use Ticwatch. Ease of use matters. My second WearOS device is the Skagen Falster 2. It's a lightweight utility watch with a cheap and fun yellow silicone strap that works great. It has a crown and two buttons, and each button can be assigned to launch a specific application. (I usually use button 1 for Google Fit and button 2 for the weather.) I really like this watch and only gave it up because something even better was coming. Watch number three is the Diesel Fadelight. I really don't recommend this. Physically it looks like a fairly massive watch module mounted on a hard transparent vinyl strap. It's not very comfortable and the closure is uncomfortable. Fadelight has a crown but no buttons, so there's no way to quickly launch the app. (Launching an app requires four actions: click to turn on the screen, click again to show apps, scroll or swipe to an app, and click or tap to launch. On Skagen, I just double-click the assigned button.) And then me got a Michael Kors Bradshaw watch which has become my favorite watch. First, it looks and feels good: a dark blue aluminum body and multi-link strap with an additional blue silicone strap. It reminds me of my old Citizen SkyHawk that I wore for many years. It just looks right. In terms of controls we have a crown and two buttons like the Falster 2 and I was able to set them up the same way in a couple of minutes. Compared to the other three, he has amazing faces. Some of them I would never use, but others show a nice combination of style and functionality. Another point: charging. The Ticwatch Pro uses a dedicated charging station with four contact pads. The other three appear to use the same two-pin white magnetic charger that connects to the watch's touch module, which is housed in two slip rings. I am pleased that a certain standardization is emerging here. (It's also worth noting that the Ticwatch Pro's dual display hasn't proven to be a huge benefit. With tilt-to-wake on, every four hours of battery life is 24 hours, which is good enough for me. )