Wearable had reported in September about Googles 290 crore INR smartwatch deal with Fossil. It is now official that Google has acquired the licence to a hybrid smartwatch technology developed by Fossil. The technology is internally referred to as Diana at Fossil. This is basically an analogue watch with a digital display and smartwatch components. The first embodiment of this technology was the Fossil Hybrid HR smartwatch.There are a few other smartwatches as well with the same technology. Diana is designed to have multiple variants. Diana watches have traditional analogue watch features along with digital displays. The Fossil Collider DIANA Smartwatch includes mechanical hands and E Ink digital display of heart rate, step count, date, and even the weather behind the clock hands. You can see the display features in the picture given above. As Fossil did not want all its E Ink displays to be only black-and-white, they have made a white watch as an experiment with colour masking as shown in the picture. This would allow the company's licenced brands like Diesel and Kate Spade to diversify their portfolio. The button-press-and-hold access to Google Assistant was not included in the Fossil Hybrid HR. When the deal between Fossil and Google was announced back in January, Fossil said it would result in the launch of "new product innovation". Fossil has been working on Diana technology since 2016. It is designed to integrate traditional watch design and smart features like notifications into a single unit with better battery life. Some of the engineers who worked on 'Diana' were also hired by Google.We are still unsure if Google will pursue a smartwatch in this style. We may have to wait for some more time to find that out. Recently, Google announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Fitbit for 15,000 crore INR. Google's Senior VP of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, announced that the deal would allow Google to "invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market." Fossil did not respond to our request for comments.

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Smartwatches

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