Not many things come to mind when I talk about men's fashion. There just aren't that many things that men can wear on a daily basis to express a sense of design or style. I've already written about the backpack as the first item, but the second one for me is the watch.
A bit of background
I've been wearing watches every day since I was 10 and my uncle got one for me as a gift. It was a $35 Timex with Ironman (the race, not the hero) branding, and I loved it. It was perfectly functional - timers, a stopwatch, a backlight, incredibly waterproof, the whole nine yards. I wore it pretty much nonstop (yes, including to bed and when I showered) for about 2 years until it died. Throughout middle school and high school, I more or less stuck with those fitness-oriented watches, as I ran cross country and being able to view splits on my wrist was incredibly important.
But as my love of tech and design grew, I started looking for alternatives. And then, in late 2014, Motorola (who was on a streak of releasing stellar products) put out the Moto 360. It was beautiful - the first smartwatch to mix form and function, a watch with all the tech while looking drop-dead gorgeous. I got the first version in high school, and sometime in college switched over to the second generation. To this date, I remember the leather straps (by Horween, if I'm not mistaken) as the best I've ever used - soft, supple, and no weird pointy ends.
Left: The first-generation Moto 360. The watchfaces were interchangeable, of course, but the band was slightly difficult to switch out without the right tool. Right: The second generation can be identified by the lugs on the corners of the watch, which enabled easier strap switching, and by the movement of the button from 3 o’clock to 2 o’clock. While the aesthetics didn’t change much, the tech was vastly superior.
But, sometime during sophomore year, I was chatting with a friend while a bit inebriated, and my response to "how durable is it?" was to pitch it, baseball-style, at a wall. It gave up after about 2 weeks.
The smartwatch problem
While I loved my Moto 360, I found that I just wasn't using it to its fullest potential. The most futuristic thing I did with a screen on my wrist was use it to board the plane one time. Other than that, all I really did was check the time, count my steps, and briefly examine notifications. As Apple eventually discovered, the watch wasn't a communication tool - it was an organizational one with a fitness bonus. But I found myself getting distracted by having instant access to notifications on my wrist. If I was at work or in class, the ability to check notifications at a glance turned into a nagging need to make sure that nothing was going on.
Enter Fossil, with their "Q Commuter Hybrid Smartwatch." I wasn't looking to spend anywhere near the hundreds of dollars I spent on the Moto 360, and wasn't looking for something with features that I'd never use.
Yes, it's a watch
The main draw, for me, was the design. First and foremost, this thing was a watch - no screens, no speakers, just an ordinary and uncomplicated circle with some straps attached to it. It had the added benefit of a Bluetooth chip and a vibration motor to assist with notifications, but to everyone around me it was just a (good-looking) watch. Like the second-gen Moto 360, it had lugs and was compatible with 22mm bands. The buttons on the side didn't draw much attention - for all people knew, it was just a design thing. And the orange accents worked perfectly for a student at UT.
But Fossil also nailed the core of the smartwatch experience. This thing does the 3 main things I wanted a watch to do, and then some. It tells the time (duh), it keeps me connected and aware, and it helps me track my fitness levels. The watch contains a Bluetooth chip inside which connects to a single app on my phone. That app enables my watch to alert me with a light buzz whenever I get a notification, and the hands quickly move over to let me know what's going on - 12 o'clock means that someone's calling, 3 o'clock means I got an email, and 4 o'clock means that one of my group messaging apps is buzzing me. At the same time, if I enable Do Not Disturb on my phone, it'll mute the watch - and because there's no screen, I can actually focus on whatever I need to.
The fitness aspect is also pretty nice. I don't ask for much here - really just something that can count my steps - and the Q Commuter Hybrid delivers wonderfully, with a small dial in the corner of the watch telling me how far I am to my daily step goal. Since the straps are replaceable, it takes me about 30 seconds to transition from a leather strap to a silicone one before I head out on a run. The app also keeps a log of my activity, and breaks everything down into whether I was casually strolling or really pushing myself.
Those buttons on the side are probably the most underrated feature - they're all programmable to a few quick functions, and I have mine set up to control music (the top button turns the volume up, the bottom one turns it down, and the middle one is used to play/pause/fast forward/rewind). This is the "next level" feature here. When I'm walking around outside or working at my desk, the volume control on my earphones is hard to immediately find, and my phone is usually in my pocket. Being able to quickly adjust volume on my wrist is so much easier.
It gets out of the way
So the Q Commuter Hybrid blends form with function incredibly well. But it also does so while staying out of my mind. The battery is rated for about 6 months or so, and when that comes time it shouldn't take any more than $5 and 5 minutes. It looks like a regular watch, which is great for everyday use, and it fits into my fitness routine wonderfully. At $155, it's also fairly priced (though I got mine during a sale for about $120). It's not a perfect fitness watch, and it doesn't have the same amount of power and flexibility that a true smartwatch can provide, but it's simple and it looks good.