Fossil quietly killing off the Wrist PDA

This can't possibly be a shock to anyone — the damn things were selling for $80 last we heard — but Fossil is quietly killing off its Wrist PDA line of Palm-powered PDA watches. It was bad enough that it literally took them years to bring the watches to market (the watch was first announced in 2002, but only hit stores earlier this year), but when they watches finally did arrive Fossil discovered that hardly anyone wanted a wearable PDA with a tiny screen and hardly any memory. Why won't someone just invent a Bluetooth-enabled watch that doubles as a smartphone or PDA companion?

[Ben Gold @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

geez what goin on with fossil they also got rid of the spot watches too

[Paul @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Now that's a good idea whoever wrote this post - a Bluetooth watch that works with your Treo/Smartphone to display some useful information without having to dig the thing out of your pocket. If they could do this without making it look hideous I'd buy one.

[Jared Roddy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Yeah, it should definitely show the caller ID on the watch, that wouldn't take up much space at all. Then you'd be all "George Bush Dammit! Stop calling me!!"

[Shaan Bhagat @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

No no no no no no no, I need these watches for a prject of mine. FUCK

[Victor Agreda, Jr. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

OK, if anyone has one for less than $100 I'd be happy to take it off your hands... Believe it or not, this little niche product would totally serve my needs...

Now, as to the story itself, I just heard Rocky the Squirrel saying, "again?"

[Richard @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Shaan: Better get your ass to a Fossil store then, pronto.



I was in a fossil store a while ago, and remarked at how incredibly archaic those things are. Even in 2002 they looked very 1998.

[Keith @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

If you look at the specs (TigerDirect.com is selling them), you can see the watch needs recharging every 3-4 days. Do you want a watch that will die and lose all your data if you forget to recharge it after 3 days? BTW, the memory is RAM not flash.

[n8 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Actually, better get to Tiger Direct - $80.

I liked these when they were first announced, but it took too long to get to market and I lost interest. I might pick one up for $80 just to have though - I think they have a nice look, actually.

As for Spot, that was the dumbest idea Microsoft ever had - or close, anyway. Limited service, high price, ugly watches, slow data transmission....it was universally bad.

[suntiger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Richard: Weren't they announced in 1998, then delayed for years?

[Samuel Lago @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

This isn't the same thing as SMART watches form Microsoft are they?

[meunierc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Heh! I expected it to last at least another year before it was discontinued - it was too much of a niche market (and nerdy) to survive. I'm just a bit disappointed to see it CDN $100 less than I paid 2 months ago.

Note to the sceptics: the product is the best watch 3v4r, single disadvantage being that I charge it every night, YMMV. Don't buy it if you need a PDA, buy it if you want a watch with all the bells and whistles of a Palm.

[Donnie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

I've seen this watch go for $50 (with shipping) on home shopping channel (I flipped through), and they "threw in" extras.

What most people think of watches are only to tell time, alarms, and chronograph. When your watch tells the weather and displays e-mail, that's where many draw the line and refuse to pay so much.

[Ted T @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

That would be cool!

[James @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Nobody wants a computer for a watch - are you guys crazy?? Why would a watch company partner with Palm and Microsoft? I just want the thing to tell time and stay running for longer than a couple of years. Give me a cell phone to make calls with, and a watch to tell time with (and fashion statement). Why are they always trying to mix oil and water to get purfume?? It just doesnt work fellas!!

[Adam Goode @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Here is a "Bluetooth-enabled watch that doubles as a smartphone or PDA companion": http://flat-earth.ece.cmu.edu/~eWatch/

[Robot Commando @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Twelve absolutely hideous watch faces, none of which have a seconds display. On a $250.00 watch? When I reviewed this, I called Fossil and asked why. "Because the watch faces only update once a minute." Huh? The thing has a computer in it!

3-4 day battery life and if you don't remember to recharge it, you lose all your data. Real smart engineering. Hello? Flash RAM? Ever heard of it? Hey, maybe if they had put second hands on the watch faces, the battery would have lasted 1 day.

Not waterproof, not even water-resistant. Wanna take off your watch every time you wash your hands? Do the dishes? Take a shower? Go out in the rain? Wash the car?

1" black and white screen with a finicky digitizer and a joke of a stylus, running an older PalmOS. No connectivity to the outside world. Can't pull down data from anywhere except through USB to your computer. Or IR from another Palm.

Back light that stays on 2-3 seconds max. ONE chirp sound.

Now explain to me why anyone would pay $xxx.xx for this thing and load it up with contacts' phone numbers and not also carry some kind of cell phone already full of those same phone numbers? This was a "Look what we can make" (but why would you want to?) product, whose only good feature was that it was impressive looking on your wrist. Maybe useful as a weapon, or to wow the neighborhood kids, but as a PDA or a watch? Forget it. It made as much sense as a screen door on a submarine.

And this is the best they could come up with after four years of development?

[KTamas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Gee, I want one, so much... Yes, i have an iMate PDA2K, but... darn, this thing is just... geeky, pure geekness....

[meunierc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

suntiger: Yes they were... They were delayed for so long that most people thought it was vaporware.

James: I agree on the general principle that convergence is a bad thing, at least until they can make a "perfect pea-sized all-in-one everything". My watch does a watch's job, and my pda does a pda's job. I personnally chose to use a "good" watch and a "good" pda for my needs. My Fossil watch synchronizes appointments with MS Outlook, to me it's worth it to have the watch beep before all my meetings. If the other PalmOS features are useful (ex. having all my contacts on my wrist, plus a Japanese dictionary), then all the better.

Christian

[Mon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Robot commando -- take your dweeb hat off..... The PDA watch is a chick magnet!

The August issue of Sync Magazine lists the PDA watch #5 on its list of items that produce a positive physical reaction in women (# 4 was a sleek cell phone; # 6 was a puppy).

[Mon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Robot commando -- take your dweeb hat off..... The PDA watch is a chick magnet!

The August issue of Sync Magazine lists the PDA watch #5 on its list of items that produce a positive physical reaction in women (# 4 was a sleek cell phone; # 6 was a puppy).

[Bigland @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

I bought one while it was on sale. So sad to see it being discontinued but I could totally understand. After all, its OS is from the last century!

I do think it will become a collectable item. Maybe not at the same level as Newton but still have a lot of techie-appeal.

[Peter Zhang @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

#15 Maybe Microsoft should buy that watch and launch that instead. Great product!

[Robot Commando @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

A chick magnet? What kind of crack are the Editors of Sync magazine smoking? A Porsche or a Corvette are chick magnets. The only chicks this thing might attract are 9-12 year olds, or the chicks that are pecking for seed around a farm yard. Maybe if you magnetized the watch it would attract a chick with a face full of metal (Rosanna Arquette in "Pulp Fiction")..

[Hillie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Give it some time, they will be back. If not by Fossil then by another company. There should be GPA watches to help navigate you through city streets. Associatedcontent.com has a bunch of technology articles that are informative and interesting. Take a look.

[Craig Daters @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

What is the source that this story was taken from? I would be curious to know.

[Shannon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

This is from an email I recieved from Fossil today.

"You will be happy to hear that there is no plan to discontinue the Wrist PDA. There are plans in the making for changes & upgrades, so you may not see the current style available for a while."

So it's not discontinued just being reworked to get some bugs worked out.

To all those with negative attitudes, why do you have them? You don't like it fine but technology only goes so fast. What did you expect a Windows XP system with 4gig RAM and 160G hard drive on your wrist so you can play your favorite game and access the internet from anywhere in the world? If you think it's so easy what have you developed and marketed lately? For instance IBM had a watch prototype based on the Linux OS with wireless connectivity but who the heck would buy it for over $2000? Remember small = cash in the real world. It will take time for small to be affordable. You do have a choice not to buy it after all. Some of use actually try to use whats available and are thankful for it.

Oh and if your worried about how you look you appearently have a inferiority complex....

Just my opinions

[Keith Carpenter @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

I picked up one of the watches about a month ago. I LOVE IT!! It is just nice to have all of my contact info, to-do lists, calendar and e-mail on my wrist if I need them. I picked mine up from Amazon and with shipping I paid $85.48. I purchased it on 8/12/05

[Marc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

The Timex Data Link does many of the things done by the Fossil, however, it uses a very user-friendly Windows format rather than OS. I have three of them. Isn't Palm stuff kind of the Beta that lost to VHS? That being said, I still find this watch interesting. I would purchase one - the Fossil Wrist PDA with Palm OS - Metal for the $80.00, for kicks - not chicks (a chick magnet? - dude, that's sad).

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

I have one of these watches and I think it's the best damn PDA I have ever purchased (and I have a lot of them) I use it mainly for time, datebook and passwords and a few other little apps (IE Bugme, Calculator, Bigclock). I plug it in every night to recharge (right next to my cellphone... no biggie) and I sync it every couple of days. the battery ran dry a couple times (Just hotsync and everything is back) I loved it so much that for the price ($79.00) I decided to buy a second one for backup.

[Tempus @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Seiko Instruments marketed a whole series of watch/computer/pda products starting back in the 1980's with a data watch, then the Ruputer (a PDA type device), then about two years ago they introduced the Wristomo through NTT - a wrist cellphone.

All the devices were technically great, got a tremendous amount of press coverage, but sales peaked quickly then died out. Every techno-nerd wanted one, but the average person on the street couldn't care less.

[Austin Granger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:18AM]

Now, now, please dont bash the wrist pda, i have one and it is pretty much one of the neatest things i have ever seen. it is NOT big and clunky, it can store TOO much with the built in memory, the screen is NOT tiny, it is perfectly readible, and the stilus works great!! I would highly recomend it!