Last August we learned that Fossil's big bet on embracing smartwatches paid off for the wearable industry, helping fuel a smartwatch surge of about 60%. Now it looks like the bet is paying off for Fossil itself.
The company announced its Q4 earnings, and while the company lost $79.9 million in the quarter, worse than the $49.7 million loss from the same quarter a year ago, sales actually rose 1.1% year-over-year. That sounds small, but Fossil itself expected a sales drop of 1.5 to 6% - and it's thanks to wearable tech sales.
Read this: Fossil's designer hybrids for Spring 2018
Sales of wearables doubled to over $300 million, making up 14% of sales overall. That success, according to Fossil, helped lead a boost in watch sales during the second half of 2017.
But the company is not done yet, as it is now emboldened in its plan for the future. Kosta Kartsotis, chairman and CEO of Fossil Group, said that the company's continued connected watch push will counter the bleeding from dwindling traditional watch sales and fuel growth in the future.
Investors agree, as Fossil shares shot up by 70% after the company announced the news. That, by itself, is a huge boon for the future of wearables. Do remember that many traditional watch makers, like Swatch, scoffed at connected watches in the beginning.
Now Fossil has set itself up as one of the leaders in the connected watch world, right up alongside Apple. It has even replaced tech companies as the flag bearer for Android Wear.
As Fossil maintain its connected watch pace, the company is also looking forward to jumping into more wearables, like smartglasses, hearables and even connected purses. The company is in a unique position to augment fashion with technology, and it's seeing the beginnings of what could be massive success.
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By Husain Sumra
Husain joined Wareable in 2017 as a member of our San Fransisco based team. Husain is a movies expert, and runs his own blog, and contributes to MacRumors.
He has spent hours in the world of virtual reality, getting eyes on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR.
At Wareable, Husain's role is to investigate, report and write features and news about the wearable industry – from smartwatches and fitness trackers to health devices, virtual reality, augmented reality and more.
He writes buyers guides, how-to content, hardware reviews and more.