Fossil has officially unveiled its latest generation smartwatches running on Google's Wear OS that are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 3100 processor and now pack in a speaker.
The Julianna HR and Carlyle HR join the Fossil Sport in packing Qualcomm's latest smartwatch chipset, which most notably brings features like smart new battery modes to help these Wear watches last for longer.
The Gen 5 duo feature 44mm stainless steel watch cases housing 1.3-inch touchscreen AMOLED displays with a punchy 328ppi pixel resolution. Available in a host of different looks, both measure in at 12mm thick and come with 22m straps that can be swapped out for a different look.
Seemingly the natural successors to the Q Venture HR and Explorist HR, both run on the latest version of Google's Wear OS software bringing new features like the recently introduced Tiles (widgets) feature to give you quicker access to the Wear features you use most. Apps like Spotify and Noonlight will be preloaded along with Cardiogram, an app designed for monitoring serious heart related conditions.
There's also some interesting changes in the hardware department with the inclusion of a speaker, which means you can hear responses from Google Assistant, listen to music without headphones and more interestingly, take calls from your wrist when the watch is tethered to your smartphone.
The ability to take calls will initially be available for Android phone users, with Fossil revealing that it is planning to launch an app later this year that will bring the same functionality to iPhone users.
Other notable additions include ramping up storage to 8GB (from 4GB) and 1GB of RAM (up from 512MB), which gives you more room for apps and music and hopefully a smoother all round performance.
Like previous Fossil watches, you'll get NFC for Google Pay support, a swimproof design (up to 30 metres depth), an upgraded heart rate monitor, built-in GPS, an altimeter, some pretty standard motion sensors and a microphone.
Battery life is still slated to be 24 hours, though the hope is that those additional battery modes can see the watches go for multiple days. A rapid charging mode means a 50-minute charge will get you up to 80% from 0%, to help you get through another day's play.
The Julianna HR and Carlyle HR in all colorways and finishes are available to buy now for . Fossil has also revealed three other brands under its umbrella will get the Gen 5 treatment before the end of the year. It's also revealed that a host of new hybrid smartwatches will be joining those other Gen 5 watches, which will be interesting to as we haven't seen new hybrids from Fossil for a while now.
We're hoping to get our hands on the new watches soon to see if Fossil's Gen 5 Wear watches are worth getting excited about.
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.