Fossil Q Marshal – My first smartwatch
18.1.2017
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
I believe smartwatches are better in theory than in practice and have not been able to bring myself to cough up that amount of money for a minor added value. Time to face my prejudices!
Marketing manager Michelle Oehri is standing in front of me and says: "Want to test a smartwatch? You test pretty much anything that’s halfway smart, right?” Well I suppose I “could” but that’s a far cry from “want”. Smartwatches are the only gadget I can really do without in my life and now the Q Marshal is supposed to prove me wrong. I do have my reasons by the way:
- Smartwatches are not self-contained devices
- They’re usually clumsy, heavy and anything but delicate
- The screen’s too small
- I never wear watches as it is
However, I reviewed the Vector Luna not too long ago and tasted blood. Having all that information right there at your wrist is kind of sexy. I can see why people would make a conscious decision to get one. But still – is it really worth it?
Everything's interacting
For starters, this thing definitely looks classier than expected! Another plus is inside the box: there’s a Q-shaped indentation in which the Q Marshal lies. Not really relevant but definitely a nice touch. Smartwatches are a bit tricky by nature because you’ve got to cram an awful lot of technology into a tiny space. And don’t forget that the battery takes up room, too.
The Q-shaped indentation featured in the boxThe watches I looked at back then were all really thick and I didn't like that at all. Although the Q Marshal’s design is a little thicker than I’d hoped for, it would still pass as a fancy watch. Unlike Donald Trump, I have large hands and wide wrists, so you hardly notice the watch's size anyway.
One website that lets anybody create a watch face is FaceRepo – simply filter the designs by watch. But we’re faced with a similar problem: Visual insults and very few gems.
Patriotic or not, this thing is just plain ghastly.After a good hour of cursing and doubting humankind, I ended up going with Daring Graphite HD. The cool thing about it is that the app allows you to fine tune various settings.
Surely not to everyone’s taste but at least this looks like a watchDiscreet until after work
In our daily lives, watches are mainly characterized by one feature: Nobody will notice them unless they’re used. The Q Marshal also falls into this category… until about 6 p.m.
Who would have thought this picture would ever come in handy?In any case, the watch is really quite intuitive and I don’t remember any incident in which I felt lost or out of my depth. Well done, Fossil!
First-world problems everywhere
The problems start when the Fossil Q Marshal’s biggest weak point rears its ugly head, namely the battery. Its battery life is just about sufficient. Every night the thing needs to be charged and after a day’s work, the battery is so low, I wonder if it will still be alive by the time I get home.
But worry not, these flaws are minor and fall into the category of first-world problems – small annoyances that are put to shame by the real problems the world is facing today.
My conclusion: The Fossil Q Marshal is not only stylish but can also truly come in handy. Although a smartwatch is not an absolute must-have for people’s everyday lives, it doesn’t create more problems than it solves. So if you’re after a smartwatch that’s a pretty and useful little gadget, the Fossil Q Marshal will definitely serve that purpose. I really grew fond of it during the test phase.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
