Fossil Preparing Caller ID Watch

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2021392,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,189...,2021392,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"After experimenting with PDA watches and MSN watches, Fossil says they've learned their lesson: what consumers want from a "smart watch" is an easy way to see information at a glance. Fossil's new Abacus MobileWear is a handsome, water resistant analog men's watch with a tiny 96-by-16-pixel OLED screen near the bottom of the face. It pairs up with a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth phone so that when you get a phone call, the caller ID information appears on the watch. If you don't like what you see, you can silence your phone's ringer by pressing a button on the watch. That's about it. The MobileWear watch is the answer to one of the major problems with cell phones—those stressed-out moments when you leave your phone in your bag and can't get to it while it's ringing. At least with this watch, you'll know if you want to dump your entire bag out looking for the thing."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20061006-fossil.jpg" /><br /><br />There are two things this watch lacks and it's a microphone and speaker. Imagine holding your wrist up to your ear while walking down the street and talking to your buddy on the other end of the line. Cool, huh? Okay, maybe not. Let's jump back to reality. The concept of this watch isn't too shabby, and Fossil thinks that future versions could go the extra mile and support the display of SMS messages (which I think may be a little painful to read, but that's another story for another day). With support for other mobile operating systems to follow in the months ahead, this could be your Pocket PC or Smartphone's next best friend. But does it appeal? Let us know.

[Jason Lee]

This is exactly what i have been wanting for years!!! Since i first heard of bluetooth. I hope it will work with WM5 someday. :D

[mwfielder]

I like the idea of this---but needs to be universal to all BT phones, pda or otherwise. I would vote for SMS as well....

[techNeuron]

This is great. I wonder how long it goes without a charge?

One other thing I would like is for the watch to vibrate (or maybe beep) if there was call on the phone and the phone was silent. Now that would be cool.

Many times in noisy environments I can't hear my phone or not feel it vibrate. If this was on my wrist I could feel it.

I don't think I would like the shock method.

Edit: I just read the article. It says the watch lasts a week on a single charge. Not bad.

[cromdubh]

I WANT ONE.....&lt;g>... guess who is a watch junkie....addicted to them. I even bought a SPOT watch..but the less said about that the better :oops: . But I dont want one enough to go for a Sony Ericcson phone..so the sooner they get it working with my M600..the sooner I buy one...

:devilboy:

[techNeuron]

I just found this news release that mentions the watch has a vibrating alert. :D Cool.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&amp;STORY=/www/story/09-28-2006/0004441398&amp;EDATE=

Now if it worked with any bluetooth device like my x51v PDA and Phone.

It could notify me of appointments, etc.

[Brad Adrian]

At first glance, this kinda made sense to me, especially when I remember how HUGE and difficult to use the first Fossil PDA watches were (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2290). But, then I asked myself, "Which is simpler, looking at my watch for information about an incoming call, or looking at my phone?"

It was a toss-up.

[Paragon]

"Which is simpler, looking at my watch for information about an incoming call, or looking at my phone?"

It was a toss-up.

I just say hello. It's even simpler. ;)

Dave

[Perry Reed]

I like it. Assuming they come up with one that works with any phone (or at least my PPC-6700) I would certainly use it. A great deal of the time I have my phone in its case on my belt and my BT earpiece in my ear. When the phone rings it vibrates and all I have to do to answer it is hit the button on the earpiece, but of course I want to see who it is that's calling first, so I end up pulling out my phone anyway. It's worse when I'm in my car and getting to my phone under the seatbelt is that much more difficult.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I love watches in general.

[mrozema]

I'm suprised that they would (initially) limit their support to Sony-Ericsson phones only. That comes across as a bit short-sighted to me.
I think many productivity-oriented people or gadget nuts will want this and chances are they will have a Blackberry, Trio or PPCPE. :roll:

[PetiteFlower]

This could definitely be cool, as long as it wouldn't prevent the same phone from also being connected to a BT headset.

[Sven Johannsen]

I'm suprised that they would (initially) limit their support to Sony-Ericsson phones only. That comes across as a bit short-sighted to me.Not sure they have a choice here. I don't think there is a standard profile for transferring this info that all, or a majority of, phones support. I have a Jabra BT headset with a display, but it displays the number of the caller, not the name. I expect they would have displayed the name if that was normally available. I think they have to have a specially designed phone to do this, and SE is working with them. Probably won't work with every SE phone either. That's my guess.

[Brad Adrian]

I just say hello. It's even simpler.
How wonderfully retro and quaint! ;)

[alese]

I'm suprised that they would (initially) limit their support to Sony-Ericsson phones only. That comes across as a bit short-sighted to me.
I think many productivity-oriented people or gadget nuts will want this and chances are they will have a Blackberry, Trio or PPCPE. :roll:

I don't have any hard data about that, but I would guess Sony-Ericsson's Worldwide sales of BT enabled phones is more than Blackberries, Treos and other WM devices combined...

[Philip Colmer]

This is a great concept!

I can never feel my phone vibrate so I'm always missing calls if I'm in an environment where I can't hear it ring either. Having a watch that vibrates would just be fantastic! I like Fossil watches and the design is elegant.

It is a shame about the SE tie-in. At the moment, I've got an SE phone but I don't know how long it will stay like that. I'm expecting my next device to be WM5 in some shape or form.

--Philip

[mrozema]

I'm suprised that they would (initially) limit their support to Sony-Ericsson phones only. That comes across as a bit short-sighted to me.
I think many productivity-oriented people or gadget nuts will want this and chances are they will have a Blackberry, Trio or PPCPE. :roll:

I don't have any hard data about that, but I would guess Sony-Ericsson's Worldwide sales of BT enabled phones is more than Blackberries, Treos and other WM devices combined...
That's fair, but I wonder how many of those sales are to people who are going to purchase all the cool techie toys that come out for them. I think that chances are, they just want the phone.

[alese]

I'm suprised that they would (initially) limit their support to Sony-Ericsson phones only. That comes across as a bit short-sighted to me.
I think many productivity-oriented people or gadget nuts will want this and chances are they will have a Blackberry, Trio or PPCPE. :roll:

I don't have any hard data about that, but I would guess Sony-Ericsson's Worldwide sales of BT enabled phones is more than Blackberries, Treos and other WM devices combined...
That's fair, but I wonder how many of those sales are to people who are going to purchase all the cool techie toys that come out for them. I think that chances are, they just want the phone.

I agree, there are for sure more potential buyers of such a watch per 100 users in WM camp than in SonyEriccson's but I guess if SE is willing to work with them on integration and given the bigger potential market it's logical to go with them initially.
In any case, if they ever make it compatible with WM it's going to be on my shopping list.
Eliminating the need for taking out the device to see who is calling is great and having vibrate alert is just a cherry on a cake.
This would be especially usefull for HTC Universal users, no need anymore for opening the device to see who is calling...