Fossil and Puma get sporty with new smartwatch collaboration
The Fossil Group has developed its first sports smartwatch together with Puma. The sporty watch will be presented at the IFA 2019 in Berlin this week. It runs the Google operating system Wear OS and is offered in three colors. The price is being kept competitive.
The Puma-branded smartwatch is visually distinguished by the large crown with the Puma logo, which is located on the right-hand side of the watch. It is both a push-button and rotatable and thus serves as an alternative to pure touchscreen operation. The Puma smartwatch has no other buttons. The housing, which is only available in one size, is made of aluminum. The strap is soft plastic. The sports watch is resistant to sweat, dust, and water and can also be used for swimming.
When you look deeper into the technical details, the Puma smartwatch is still quite economical. The battery should last "24 hours plus X", according to the manufacturer. The watch has a heart rate monitor and a GPS module so you can record your sporting activities without having to carry your smartphone around in your pocket. However, a version with a built-in SIM card is not yet planned.
Like all manufacturers of smartwatches with Wear OS, Puma has a hard time standing out from the crowd when it comes to software - the operating system can hardly be adapted. A few of its own watch faces and its own fitness app are probably all customers can expect in this respect. Since Fossil and Puma developed the smartwatch with the basic idea of it being "designed for the social runner", one focus might be to let other fitness freaks participate in each others workouts, either live or later by sharing activity stats on social media channels.
How much is the Puma smartwatch?
The Puma Smartwatch will stay below the magic limit of 300 bucks. To be precise, it costs €279/$300/£250. Sales of the sports watch will begin in November, both through Puma's own online shop and through selected dealers, who have not yet been named.
