Fossil Q Accomplice

The Fossil Q Accomplice fuses basic smarts with the traditional look of a watch, providing a low-key hybrid timepiece that will nudge you when you get a notification.

For those interested in the useful features offered by smartwatches but put off by having yet another screen on their person, hybrid smartwatches are the best option at the moment. 

Like a superhero in civilian clothing, hybrids are designed to look like ordinary and (somewhat ironically) timeless watches while hiding some neat smartwatch capabilities.

Fossil Q Accomplice price

•  Q Accomplice price: from £159/$155/AU $279

In terms of pricing, the Q Accomplice has two tiers. Opting for the leather straps is the cheaper option at £159/$155/AU $279, while stainless steel straps will set you back slightly more at £179/$175/AU $299.

This makes it cheaper than the majority of smartwatches on the market, but remember this is a hybrid, which means it has a more limited feature set.

Design

• Light, comfortable and just small enough to be a good unisex option
• You'll need to visit a store if you need the metal strap adjusted

The Accomplice from Fossil is a great example of a watch that does more than sit pretty on your wrist. 

It's available in five colors: rose gold with matching stainless steel link straps, navy blue with rose gold accents and stainless steel navy link straps, good old fashioned silver stainless steel, gold with a tan leather strap and silver with a sand leather strap. 

The model we had for review was rose gold with matching stainless steel link straps. It's a stylish option and like all hybrid devices, the watch face looks like that of a traditional watch – all of the smarts are hidden inside. 

At 38mm across and 11mm thick, the Accomplice is light, comfortable and just small enough to be a good unisex option. We would have been happy to see a watch face slightly smaller than this given that it still erred on the chunky side for our wrist, but it was more manageable than many smartwatches we've tried over the years.

Despite being the most fashion-forward option, the rose gold frame with matching stainless steel link straps does look slightly gaudy purely because it's so much rose gold. 

However, given the Accomplice watch faces are compatible with all of Fossil's 16mm straps, it's easy to customize and change things up. Just be aware that the color of the watch face won't change so try to pick the finish that lends itself best to the kind of customization you're likely to prefer.

The stainless steel straps are the more expensive looking option and they feel pleasingly sturdy without being heavy. One caveat, however, is that unless it fits straight out of the box you're going to have to add or remove some links to get the right fit. 

Despite coming with a very on-brand screwdriver that allows you to remove and change the battery on the back of the watch face, the Q  Accomplice doesn't come with anything that enables you to adjust the fit. 

Taking to the product set up page, we found that changing links requires a visit to a Fossil shop where it's done free of charge. Being in London means we had three stores to choose from, but this certainly won't be convenient for everyone.

When having the links removed we asked the Fossil shop assistant if this is something that can be done at home without breaking any product warranty. He told us yes, informing us that all that's required is a very small screwdriver and hammer. 

To remove a link simply use the tools to knock the pin from the link and it should come away easily. Just make sure you only remove links with arrows on their inside which indicate they can be removed. 

This seems simple enough to do, but it's also a bit of an oversight that Fossil hasn’t given customers the means to do this in the watch box alongside its other screwdriver.

Once you have a selection of straps, switching between them is a simple process of unclipping them using the small switches where the strap meets the watch face and clipping in the other one.

Notifications

• Vibrations and hand movements will notify you of new messages
• The vibrations can be easy to miss as they're a little soft

Though it looks like a completely ordinary watch, the Fossil Q Accomplice is actually hiding some very useful smartwatch-inspired features. 

The first of these is haptic vibrations which alert you when your phone receives a notification. You can set up your notification preferences in the Fossil Q companion app, assigning apps or contacts a number on the watch face. 

When you receive notifications from contacts or apps you've assigned a place, the Q Accomplice will vibrate on your wrist. The hands will also spin to the number on the watch face that you’ve assigned that specific notification to. 

If, for example, you've designated email notifications to the number 2, any time you receive an email the watch will buzz and both of the hands will spin briefly to the number 2 before returning to normal. 

Notifications can come from individual apps like WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter or from individual contacts. While you can decide whether you'd like to be alerted to texts and/or calls from individual contacts, there doesn't appear to be any means of additional filtering within apps. 

Though we could say we'd like to be alerted to phone calls from an individual contact, we couldn't say we'd only like to be alerted to messages from one particular conversation within WhatsApp.

Though the Q Accomplice notifications attempt to get your attention via two senses, both are somewhat limited. The haptic vibrations can be quite weak and though you'll certainly hear them against a wooden surface (don't leave this thing on your nightstand, folks) you might miss them against your skin. 

The problem with this is that when you miss the vibration, you don't know to check for the hands on the watch face moving to see which kind of notification you have. 

The Q Accomplice also falls short in the dark due to the lack of a backlight. While you’ll still feel buzzing notifications, it's hard to see what they actually are and you'll end up just pulling your phone out of your pocket anyway.  

A further problem with this rather coded method of distinguishing notifications is that it requires that you remember which number you've assigned to all of your apps and contacts. 

The best way to go about this is to only set up notifications for your most urgent apps and avoid filling up every slot. This way, you know that when the watch is attempting to alert you it's for something important and it's easy to remember at a glance what it might be. 

Assigning every single one of your social media accounts and messaging services a number is still an option but it means you run the risk of a constantly buzzing wrist and a watch face that behaves like a time turner.

Remote controls

• 3 buttons on the side of the watch allow you to control phone functions
• Skip and play/pause music, snap a photo and more

Using the three buttons on the right side of the watch face it's possible to remotely control your phone. You can assign them functions from within the app and there's a reasonable degree of range and flexibility here. 

You can control your music, remotely take a photo on your phone, display a second time zone, remind you which notifications you have and much more. 

We found we actually changed these quite a lot. When we we were listening to music on our commute, we dedicated each of the three buttons to controlling the music we were listening to. When we were going about our daily activities, we assigned one button to notifications, another to our activity progress and a third to remotely ringing our phone when we inevitably misplaced it. 

If you're looking for a wearable to help you achieve all your fitness goals and more, the Q Accomplice isn't the smartwatch for you and you'd be better off looking at something from Fitbit or Misfit. 

If, however, you're looking for a discreet way to count your steps, measure distance, and get a rough idea of how many calories you’ve burned you're in the right place.

Fitness tracking

• Limited fitness tracking abilities with steps and calorie count
• No activity logger or heart rate sensor

The Q Accomplice doesn't have any robust fitness tracking features. It's a passive step and distance tracker that’s able to estimate the number of calories you’ve burned across the day based on your height and weight. 

There's no timed activity logging or heart rate tracking or workout logging features here so the device won't be able to help you track and meet your fitness goals. It won't even give you a nudge if you've been sitting down for a while to remind you to meet the step goal it allows you to set.

There isn't a complete absence of insight, though – you can see the number of steps you've taken each day over a week and there is a small section that will tell you how long you’ll have to walk to reach your step goal for that day.

Sleep tracking

• Basic sleep tracking function with little insight
• Can be uncomfortable to wear overnight

There's also sleep tracking functionality. Now, the size and material of the Fossil watch, while fine for daily use, doesn't make it an especially comfortable bed accessory. However, we're committed to our reviews and we tested it out.

Turns out the discomfort isn't all that worth it as the sleep tracking functions are pretty limited. 

You can set a goal (for example, eight hours if you’re highly optimistic) and in the app you'll be able to see a breakdown of your time spent awake, in light sleep, and in deep sleep.

This kind of tracking was reasonably accurate as far as we could tell but it's not possible to delve any deeper than this or glean much more useful information. 

Looking on the rear of the watch you'll find its water resistance rating is 3 ATM. This is more splash proof than anything else. 

You'll be able to wash your hands or walk in the rain but definitely don't forget to take it off before you get in a shower or wash the dishes and don't even dream of jumping in the pool. 

Compatibility and app

The Fossil Q Accomplice and its accompanying app are compatible with Android OS 5.0 devices and above and iOS 9.0 devices and above. 

Syncing the watch to your phone is a fast and easy process. Simply turn on your phone’s Bluetooth and hold a button on the watch until it enters pairing mode (indicated by three vibrations) and you should be good to pair. 

After this you simply use an easy step-by-step set-up guide in the app which will take you through the main features and help you set up your preferences. 

The app is neat and easy to understand. The home page will give you a breakdown of your main button functions, steps taken and notification assignations.

The device section allows you to change your 3 main button functions while the notifications tab lets you to decide which contacts and apps you receive notifications for. The stats section is a more in-depth breakdown of your physical activity for the day.  

Battery life 

• Up to six months battery life
• Non-rechargeable battery, have to replace battery when flat

An area where hybrid watches really trounce their smartwatch counterparts is in battery life. 

While you’ll probably find yourself charging a smartwatch most nights, hybrid watches use ordinary coin cell batteries and last around six months. This is, naturally, because hybrid watches do less than smartwatches and don’t have a screen to power but it really is such a benefit.

The watch battery for the Q Accomplice is easy to change on your own using the provided tool and the replacements are reasonably affordable. 

Not having used it for half a year, we can't say whether the Q Accomplice battery really does last a full 6 months, but these estimates tend to be fairly accurate. 

It's worth noting, though, that if you turn on the notification vibrations you definitely won't get the full six months out of it. 

We liked

The Fossil Q Accomplice's stylish appearance is something that really works in its favor. There are a range of color options and its reasonable size means that it's got a good chance of appealing to a wide audience. For women looking for a hybrid smartwatch, this is a model that looks fairly feminine and fits comfortably without the usual weaponisable Swarovski crystals.

The option of having stainless steel bands really helps it feel like a high-quality device, too. 

Cross compatibility with iOS and Android is, of course, always a welcome feature. Though the Accomplice's hybrid nature means it's not quite as accomplished as a fully-fledged smartwatch in terms of the features it can offer, it does the basics well. 

Being a hybrid, it also has a stellar battery life. Given the number of gadgets we're finding ourselves charging at the end of every day, it's nice to have a device that will only request our attention in this way every five to six months or so. 

For those not interested in heavy-duty fitness functions and simply looking for something that will keep them connected to their phone without having to constantly look at it, this is an elegant and simple solution. 

It's particularly positive that there's so much freedom of customization when it comes to notifications and button functions. 

We disliked

The Fossil Q Accomplice has a lot going for it as a hybrid. However, the lack of tools to remove the watch's links in our own time was an inconvenience and is likely to prove annoying for those who purchase the watch online and don't like near a Fossil store. 

Its weak haptic feedback is also somewhat problematic. There's little point to receiving notifications if you don't actually notice that you're receiving them. There's little Fossil can do to help this but the traditional watch face does also mean that the means of identifying your notifications is slightly more complex than simply looking at a phone screen and there is a small learning curve. 

For those looking for a gym companion, the very limited step tracking functions will definitely be a downside and this is something to be aware of. Despite having sleep tracking functions, it's also worth bearing in mind that this isn't exactly the most comfortable night time accessory. 

Final verdict

As hybrid smartwatches go, the Fossil Q Accomplice is a good one, though it doesn't exactly break a great deal of new ground. It certainly doesn't offer the same range of options as a fully-fledged smartwatch but it performs its limited functions well. 

For someone that's used to wearing a traditional fashionable watch but is intrigued by the idea of smartwatch capabilities, this makes for a good stepping stone. If, for example, you find that you don't enjoy receiving notifications or remotely controlling your phone from your wrist, you can always revert back to having a perfectly nice watch. 

This is a watch that proves a screen and a rechargeable battery are not prerequisites for the inclusion of smart and useful functions.  

First reviewed: November 2017