Review on Fossil Men's Everett Hybrid Smartwatch HR with Always-On Display, Heart Rate Monitor, Activity Tracker, Smartphone Alerts, Message Previews by Brandon Castano

I loved my smartwatch. I took it everywhere with me. Then something went wrong in our relationship. At first the battery died and I realized I couldn't take care of it myself. Rather, I had to send it back to the manufacturer for a replacement (and spent a third of the original purchase price on it). Then I realized that I would not be returning my watch but would get another one that didn't even look the same. But I continued with the replacement as my love for the connection still burned. And then came the day that destroyed everything forever. The heart and soul of my smartwatch has been damaged by an update from the almighty Google. It never worked properly again, and I actually buried it in the back of a dresser drawer, never to see sunlight again. And through that experience, I vowed to never love an Android smartwatch again. Ever. That's how this hybrid watch came from Fossil. I saw them at the Fossil store where I used to live. They looked good but I didn't want to invest in them based on my experience with my 1st gen Moto 360. But thanks to the Vine program, I had the opportunity to try one of these, and I jumped at the chance. I'm really glad I did this as it gives you the best of an analog watch and a few smartwatch features. The watch comes in a box (which was good but a bit disappointing). Unpack the box and you'll find the watch, charging cable, instructions for charging and downloading the Fossil app, and a multilingual warranty booklet that's thicker than the instruction manual. Upon examining the watch, I was very pleased with its appearance. and with its processing quality. It is beautifully finished and suitable for both casual and business attire. I had to remove a link from the bracelet to improve the fit (this is easy if you have the right watch tools - like me, but you can also take it to a jeweler). Before using the watch, I connected the charging cable to the watch. It features a USB port for power and a magnetic watch mount. I love how it works as I don't have to leave a charging station behind for it (like I did with my Moto). The watch was partially charged at the time of delivery, so it was fully charged soon after. After that, I downloaded the Fossil Hybrid app from the Play Store and installed it on my phone. Connecting to the watch was pretty quick and easy by following the instructions and prompts. After that, I created my Fossil profile to use the watch's various features and also receive notifications. Now I wear this watch a whole week and almost 24/7 to see what it can do. Here's what I found on my watch: Battery life was phenomenal (no kidding). A week after the initial full charge, 62% of the charge remained. Wow! I used this watch to track my walks and sleep, used the backlit watch face and read notifications for the entire week I had it. Impressive! It does an excellent job of tracking my walks/steps. It's the same with sleep. I have serious sleep issues so I was wondering what the watch is collecting in terms of my sleep and heart rate. However, I have no idea how accurate this information is. But that seems to coincide with my sleep disturbances. Notes are acceptable. I say that because I don't particularly care about the number of key presses you have to perform to show or clear the notification. On the watch face, I want the four main pieces of information to always be displayed. These are weather (12 o'clock position), steps (3:00), date (6:00), and heartbeat (9:00). The problem, for me at least, is that they're hard to see because they're so small. So it's difficult to read them without my glasses. Now you can adjust the size of the font used in the settings, but only for notifications. The watch face information stays the same size. Now for what I don't care about: Instructions: It doesn't really provide useful information to work with. I found I had a lot to figure out on the fly. There is no information on the Fossil website either. Button click: Too many clicks to display the information you need. Also, I can't help but think that the button mechanism has worn out from overuse. Face light: You activate the backlight by pressing the face. This feature doesn't work as well as it should. When it's on, all you can really see is the position of the clock hands. The biggest problem I had was with the Fossil Hybrid Watch app. It sucks the life out of my phone's battery - and very quickly. I'm hoping for help from Fossil Support here. Conclusion: I really like this watch and am very glad I have it. It looks very nice and I wear it almost everywhere I go. The watch only got four stars from me due to an issue with the app and what I consider to be excessive button presses. Otherwise this watch is worth it.