Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M

Re:Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M by jansan on Thursday January 17, 2019 @04:55PM (#18935024)

Thanks for all the insight.

You probably know the "drivers watches" from the seventies, which had the display at the side of the watch that faces towards you when holding a steering wheel (search for "Bulova driver's watch"). I think it would be great to get something similar again for smartwatches. A small display at the side of the watch, showing the time or some indicators. This display would be visible without rotating the wrist and make it much easier to get status information.

In addition there would still be the large display on top. Combined screen size would be even bigger without increasing the size of the watch.

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Re:Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M by aedron on Friday January 18, 2019 @04:53AM (#18938200)

If ever there was a place for a curved OLED, a smartwatch is it. Along with a slight rotation off the center of the wrist, as you mentioned, this would be the great next thing in wrist-strapped devices, IMHO. If it had a SIM I might ditch my smart phone altogether.

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Re:Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M by dingaling on Thursday January 17, 2019 @05:48PM (#18935401)

Those Drivers' Watches were clever but were an invented need much like Pilots' Watches; the actual pros mostly use a plurality of clocks on the console of their vehicle, not an expensive little fragile mechanism on their wrist.

Somehow though Pilots' Watches have survived as a lucrative luxury item. An actual navigator's watch is primarily a stopwatch. The pilot doesn't need much more than a Casio.

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Re:Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40M by Godel_unicode on Friday January 18, 2019 @12:33AM (#18937242)