[Review] Fossil Hybrid HR, the perfect balance watch

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health home ” Tests ” [Test] Fossil Hybrid HR, the perfect balance watch

The Fossil Hybrid HR watch combines the best of a smartwatch and a classic watch with its e-ink screen, activity trackers and elegant design.

We already knew the Withings Steel HR, but hybrid watches are still not widely used. However, the manufacturer Fossil also offers one and it is very successful. The Fossil Hybrid HR is a subtle blend of a classic watch and a smart health connected watch, notably thanks to its e-ink screen and its classic design with hands. Its screen stays on permanently, unlike that of a smart health connected watch, without depleting the device’s battery and uses digital ink technology (e-ink) present on digital e-readers.

A design that does not really change from the smart health connected Fossil Carlyle HR already tested: a slightly thick round dial with three buttons on the side. It should be noted first of all that the Hybrid HR watch is too big for small wrists and therefore tends to be inconvenient. But for the rest, we always keep this beautiful aesthetic with finishes worthy of a jewel and a rather elegant faux leather strap. To use the watch, you must first download the dedicated Fossil application and pair your smartphone to the watch.

Its features

The Hybrid HR is not tactile and that’s a bit of a shame! Only its three buttons on the side allow navigation. The shortcuts of these buttons change depending on the configuration made to the watch, via the application: we used the Daily mode, and for this configuration, the bottom button redirects to music, the middle one to notifications, and the one above allows you to view your scores and take your heart rate. Note that the middle button does not turn even if it looks like a dial. Via its screen, the watch can display the weather forecast, the number of steps taken, the heart rate and the date. A configuration that can be changed via the dedicated Fossil application. The only tactile side of the screen is used to activate the LEDs in the dial to bring light when it is dark: the light distribution is not uniform and you have to press down hard enough to activate the light. To return to the health home dial, simply press the middle button for more than a second.

The Hybrid HR can also assess sleep, but its size on me is too large to be comfortable wearing at night. With the “fitness” or “travel” configuration, we find the mode for the sports activity “training”: this mode allows you to monitoring your statistics during a physical effort, you just have to define yourself the time devoted to this activity and the watch is responsible for displaying the average and maximum heart rate during exercise, the distance traveled and the calories burned. All activity scores and statements are reported on the application and can be viewed via detailed graphics and diagrams.

Viewing detailed statistics is done on the app. The watch only stores the results for the day. You cannot either respond directly to messages (it only offers to notify you with a vibration) or to calls. The intensity of the vibration is not configurable and personally, I find it a bit strong and slightly annoying. However, you can sort the applications for which to receive notifications on the watch, which allows you not to have your wrist vibrating all the time.

When they do not indicate the time, the hands of the watch change position and automatically move to horizontal so as not to interfere with the reading while navigating. A brisk inward movement of the wrist also activates the hands, which make a full revolution of the dial, allowing us to view our scores unhindered.

In terms of autonomy, Fossil tells us that the Hybrid HR has a long battery life of 2 weeks. The negative point that we note is that we cannot have an overview of the battery level from the watch, we must go through the application on the smartphone. Once fully recharged, recharging which takes place in less than an hour, it was found that after 4 days, the watch was still at 73%, with moderate use.

Prices for Fossil watches

Last Amazon price update was: October 7, 2020 2:51 PM

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