While smartphone makers have taken the backseat in making Android Wear devices, classic watchmakers have jumped headstrong into the platform. Fossil has been one of the largest proponents of the platform and it’s sub-brand Skagen’s new Falster smartwatch is one of the most beautiful, minimalist and classy interpretation of it. The Skagen Falster looks more like your average digital watch than a smartwatch, and for the most part, it’s minimalism extends beyond just design choices and into the features. As a result, while using the smartwatch for a fortnight, I realised this is a smartwatch that will appeal only to the regular watch wearers. Not the enthusiasts that wants to take calls, track activities and the likes. But even for the regular watch user, the Skagen Falster is a productive proposition. It comes with all the bells and whistles of the Android Wear platform that allows it to reply to notifications, play music, and more. But even then, it looks more of a watch than a futuristic wearable for the wrist.
In the box:
Skagen Falster Watch
Charger Cable
Instruction Manual
Warranty Card
The Skagen Falster runs on Wear OS 1.2 with the May 2018 security patch. We paired the watch the Samsung Galaxy S9 to test it.
Design and Display
Skagen has made a name for itself for its understated, minimalist watches, and that reflects in the first touchscreen smartwatch that came out in CES this year. The Falster too is quite simple in its design. A full-round OLED display, a single button on the right and a leather strap. There are other options for the strap as well — Brown leather, steel mesh and rose gold mesh. The design is a departure from other Android Wear smartwatches particularly because the display doesn’t have a flat-tire design. It has the ambient light sensor around the display. Furthermore, the watch is IP67 rated water and dust proof thanks to a 42mm steel casing housing the display.
Performance
Using the watch throughout the day, the Skagen never felt bulky or cumbersome to use. It’s quite bright and crisp and even under direct sunlight, text and time were easily visible. Yes, there was some colour shift which might not ring well with enthusiasts. More than that, the Skagen really ended up becoming a second screen for my smartphone. Android Wear allows all sorts of notification to be synced to the watch, so everytime my phone vibrated, I did not have to take it out of my pocket. Instead, I could just glance at the watch and if it was something important, I could just reply to them with smart replies. There’s also the option to type, but my grubby fingers were anything but accurate.
The watch also has a built-in microphone so you can invoke Google Assistant using the ‘OK Google’ hotword. Once again, that also proved quite useful in setting alarms and reminders that would also sync with the phone. It’s a pity this does not come with LTE connectivity and needs to be tethered to the phone via Bluetooth to remain connected. As a result, if you move away from the phone, out of the range, the smartwatch simply becomes just another digital watch.
Features
What’s really intriguing is the attention to detail Skagen paid in making the watch. The steel case feels exquisitely premium and it’s 12mm thickness doesn’t make it heavy on the wrist as well. Add to that the black strap (which does tend to acquire creases), and you have a functional watch that will be good for both at work and after work. The button on the right gives a good feedback. It has a spring-like resistance which once again proves the level of attention Skagen has paid in making the hardware.
Sadly though, that level of detail extends only to the outer shell. The button on the side, for instance, can only perform two tasks. Go to the app menu from the home screen and take you back home from another app or from the menu. It would have been really cool had Skagen allowed the button to be used for navigation as well, like the rotating digital crown on the Apple Watch.
User Interface and Mobile App
Skagen’s watch faces add to the minimalist charm. You get four watch faces by default and you tweak the colours and shortcuts on the watch. The watch faces are more or less consistent with the minimalist design of the watch itself and even though Wear OS offers the ability to install third-party watch faces, I ended up sticking to the default watch faces.
The Skagen Falster is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip which is what powers most of the smartwatches these days. Considering its minimalist design and a minimalist feature set, the watch is visibly fast and not once did I experience a hiccup or a falter while browsing. And by browsing, I mean checking my notifications, replying to them, using Google Maps and Google Music and using Shazam to identify music. That’s more or less all that you can do with the smartwatch.
The browsing experience is pretty smooth as well. It’s a touch-screen based smartwatch and you have to use your grubby fingers to navigate within the tiny screen. But it does recognise touches quite easily. Even the swipes are easily registered. You swipe down to access the quick settings and swipe up to access the notifications while a swipe to the left will bring up the watch faces. To head to the app menu, you have to press the button.
Pairing the watch with the phone is easy enough. Download the Wear OS app from the Play Store, tap on ‘add a new watch’, keep the Bluetooth on and the rest will be done automatically. The app allows you to browse the Wear OS app store and install third party apps and watch faces apart from tweaking the settings.
Battery
As for the battery life, the Skagen is similar to other Android Wear devices. It last just about a day. A full charge in the morning will last you till the end of the day and you will have to mandatorily charge the watch for the next morning. Thankfully, the watch doesn’t have any sleep tracking abilities, so you won’t be needing the watch at night.
The Falster charges wirelessly through a magnetic induction charger. The charger is the only thing that comes off as poor quality in the package. Even the box looks quite beautiful and is 100 percent recyclable. What’s cool is the animation that the watch shows when you plug it in for charge.
Bottomline
The Skagen Falster leaves a lot of features out, but it does offer everything to get the basics covered. It might not be as feature rich as the offerings from LG, Huawei and Moto. But for what it’s worth, the watch is quite reliable and functional for my use which mostly centered around using the phone lesser. At Rs 19,772, the Skagen Falster is quite expensive for a smartwatch, and if you are looking for a watch that also doubles up as fitness tracking device, this isn't for you.