Michael Kors, Emporio Armani or Fossil – women’s smartwatches that hit the spot
- With all the usual bells and whistles, the MKT5080, Julianna HR and ART5023 are competing for your attention
This column has never been big on technology. The idea of robot butlers, drone deliveries and smart fridges fills us with dread as there’s no doubt in our mind that the machines will turn on us when they become sentient. I, for one, do not look forward to welcoming our robot overlords.
That said, I have come to love the activity trackers that now come as standard on smartwatches now. Of course, I love them not for their intended use, which is to track your exercise progress, but rather they are a handy way to recall where you went on a night out – apps such as Google Fit map your path, no matter how wayward. Which makes finding a lost wallet all the easier, even if you were sailing three sheets to the wind.
This week we’re going to look at three of the latest smartwatches for women, starting with Michael Kors. Most fashion brands struggle to differentiate their smartwatches because the large touch-screen dial takes up a lot of real estate, leaving little room for logos and the like. Michael Kors, however, has been adept at translating the things it does with its analogue watches to its smartwatches. The American label has focused on the bezel, case and strap, blinging things up as on the MKT5080, which is part of the Lexington 2 collection, the brand’s bestseller.
Priced at HK$3,000 (US$380), this is affordable luxury done right and the tech is mind-boggling. Running on Google’s Wear operating system, the MKT5080 has everything you would expect: messaging, notifications, alarms and world time but also a fancy speaker and microphone, so using Google Assistant isn’t a pain. It also has a ludicrous eight gigabytes of storage space, as well as Spotify and Michael Kors’ own activity tracker, Cardiogram. I’ve picked out the bejewelled version but there are less in-your-face options.
Moving on, we have the lovely Julianna HR. A fifth-generation Fossil smartwatch, this has all the latest bells and whistles, including NFC (near-field communication) tech, meaning it can be used to pay for things with a tap or a wave. The gold-plated steel case works well with the mesh black stainless-steel strap. Sized at 44mm, there’s plenty of room for the touch screen yet it doesn’t look like a beast.
The operating system is Google Wear, so again, Google Fit, Google Assistant and the usual suite of apps are here, but there is some bloatware from Fossil, too. But, like the Michael Kors watch, this also has 8GB of storage and a 1GB RAM, so downloading and running several third-party apps simultaneously won’t be a problem. Another plus is the fast charging; the watch can charge to 80 per cent in under an hour. All this fancy tech and sleek design is a bargain at HK$2,600.
Finally, we have something a bit more sporty from Emporio Armani. The ART5023 is branded as a men’s timepiece but we’d call it unisex given the funky colour options. Priced at HK$3,800, the extra few dollars are clearly for the logo, as the tech and operating system are the same as the previous two watches and the design isn’t earth-shattering. Having said that, this is a nicely executed, on-trend smartwatch with a pop of colour.
The ART5023 is one of the third generation of smartwatches from Emporio Armani and there have been some notable upgrades, including longer battery life and better battery power management, more storage (there’s 8GB of storage here, too) and a better speaker. The watch comes pre-loaded with Spotify, which is a nice touch.
