Fossil, Michael Kors and Armani smartwatches and jewellery due in 2015

Designer wearables will feature wireless charging and companion apps
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Fossil, Michael Kors and Emporio Armani wearables will launch by the end of 2015 running a new wearable tech platform developed with Intel and Google.

Read this: The best smartwatches

The Fossil Group, which licenses the Michael Kors and Emporio Armani watch and accessories brands, announced the plans to analysts, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.

Greg McKelvey, Fossil's chief strategy and marketing officer, detailed the plans to launch designer wearables in 2015 with a view to launching tech with other labels in the future. It counts Burberry, DKNY, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Diesel and Tory Burch amongst its portfolio brands.

We don't know much about the wearables, apart from details glimpsed on a presentation slide - it shows sketches of watches with and without digital displays and jewellery with and without digital displays. It refers to "one wireless charging experience", which sounds promising and a "branded digital experience" alongside an image of an iPhone.

Read this: Brands we'd love to see making wearables

The slide also mentioned "multiple accessories and price points" which suggests the new smartwatches and smart jewellery won't all be luxury items. The smartwatches could be running Android Wear as Fossil was quick to pledge its support to the OS when it launched last March.

Back in September, Fossil Group CEO Kosta Kartsotis said: "We are very excited about collaborating with Intel and working to develop the next innovation in the emerging wearable technology space. Combining our fashion lifestyle brands with Intel's expertise in technology, hardware and innovation will position us to be a leader in this segment."

We spoke to Intel's VP of New Devices, Ayse Ildeniz, at MWC 2015 where she hinted that we would see the results of the partnership with Fossil by the end of the year.

Ildeniz was keeping schtum on just high-end - and expensive - these fashion watches would be although she and fellow VP Mike Bell have been singing the praises of the $1,000 Opening Ceremony MICA bracelet, another fashion-forward Intel collaboration.


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