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By Matt Birchler
I've been writing here since 2010! Back when personal blogs were all the rage. Kids, ask your parents.

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.

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