Apple Watch is Putting Watch Makers on Notice

Fossil is having a tough time of it lately, and they blame Fitbit and Apple Watch for the trouble:

“In addition to that, I think especially in watches — we attribute this really to all of the press and PR and excitement around wearables — there seems to be somewhat of a lack of interest in watches relative to last year,” he [Fossil CEO Kosta Kartsotis] said, adding later, “there is just a malaise in watches.”

This rings true to me, and not just because I am an unabashed Apple Watch fan. I wore a Fossil watch up until the day my Apple Watch arrived, and I likely would have bought a new Fossil watch by now if it weren't for my new smart watch.

My big thing is that I rely so heavily on the parts of the Apple Watch that are simply impossible on a traditional watch. I see some of these non-smart watches and I think they look great! Check out this one from Sinn:

Photo credit: A Blog to Watch

Pretty slick, right? Setting the $5,00+ price tag aside, this watch just doesn't do what I expect from a watch anymore. It tells the time and has a stopwatch, that's it. No weather, no notifications, no messaging, no reminders, no activity tracking, and not even the date!

After 1 full year of living with all those features built into my watch, it seems insane to go backwards. For what, longer battery life and a watch face that I can't change? No thank you.