As promised during this year’s Intel Developer Forum, Fossil, Inc. revealed its connected wearable devices in time for the holidays.

With the holiday shopping season upon us, Fossil has formally launched two smartwatches. the Q Grant and Q Founder, and two smart bracelets, the Q Reveler and Q Dreamer.

Q Grant

The Fossil Q Grant looks like a traditional watch but is able to sync with your smartphone so you can track your steps and receive alerts for incoming calls, texts or notifications from social media apps. Using the companion app, you can set which colors to use for different contacts and notifications. When a notification comes in, the LED indicators on each side of the the watch will flash the color you have assigned. Say, blue for mom, red for work, yellow for Facebook notifications and so on. The traditional look of the smartwatch will allows you to track activities without having people know that you are wearing a fitness tracker.

The Q Grant will be available for purchase starting on October 25 and will retail for $175 – $195. It will be available in a silver watch face with brown band, gold watch face with beige band, black watch face with black band and a black watch face with silver band.

Q Founder

The Q Founder is an Android smartwatch that features a touchscreen display. A full-fledged smartwatch, unlike the Q Grant which is more of a smartphone companion, it is the culmination of Fossil’s partnership with Intel and Google. Specs of the Q Founder are not yet available, but early reviews indicate that the device is large and in the style of most men’s watches, but the company states that it is working on a version that is more female-friendly in size.

The Q Founder will retail for $275, but Fossil has yet to announce when it will be available for purchase. It will come in a black watch face with a black or silver band.

Smart bracelets

The two bracelets, Q Reveler – for men and Q Dreamer – for women, are identical in design and function. Both are thin and lightweight, and able to track daily activities as well as deliver app, text and call notifications to the wearer. The watch face resembles a clasp of a watch, only bigger – this is where all the tech components are placed. It comes with a narrow leather band and sturdy clasps, and it looks a fashion-forward leather bracelet.

The two bracelets are priced at $125, with the Q Dreamer launching on October 25. The Q Reveler will be available in a silver watch face with brown band or a black watch face with black band. As for the Q Dreamer, it will be available in silver and gold watch faces with eight strap options to choose from.

Smartwatch bandwagon

Fossil isn’t the only traditional watchmaker that has jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon. TAG Heuer SA recently released a teaser for its coming Connected smartwatch, to be unveiled on November 9. Casio Computer Co. has expressed interest in making one too.

Then there are the less traditional smartwatches from device makers such as Apple, Samsung and LG, so there’s no shortage in smartwatches in the market. The question now is, will the Fossil Q Founder be able to impress consumers enough to be one of the devices on top of their holiday shopping list?

3 things we’d like the Q Founder to have

Longer battery life

Smartwatches today have a battery life that lasts almost a day on a single charge, but I’m sure consumers don’t want another device they need to plug in at the end of the day. We’re hoping to see a longer battery life on the Q Founder, say, a single charge lasting a week no matter how often you use it? Better yet, if it had a kinetic battery so your movement could charge the device, Fossil could really stand out in this emerging market.

Standalone device

Most smartwatches act as a smartphone companion, which means if you don’t have your smartphone with you, it’s pretty much just a watch. What consumers would like in a smartwatch is to be able to function on its own, like make or receive a call, send and receive messages, and other things, without having to rely on a smartphone for connectivity.

Durable

Timepieces of yore were built to last the tests of time, making them heirloom quality watches. That’s probably too much to ask of a smartwatch, given the rate of technology acceleration and the need for regular software updates and retro-compatability moving forward.  But would it hurt to make such a pricy watch able to last at least five years? Aside from using durable materials to make the hardware last a few years, it could also be retrofitted with the most current smartwatch technology or its operating system be able to be upgraded whenever a new one comes out.

Image source: Mashable