Fossil Q Explorist HR

There are a plethora of Fossil watches already on the market, but the company has made some serious upgrades to its latest edition for the Q Explorist HR.

The Fossil Q Explorist debuted back in 2016, and the tech has quickly aged out of fashion meaning if you wanted a smartwatch with top-end features it would be a touch out of date.

Fossil is currently updating its whole line up of devices from a variety of brands with new tech, and below we'll break down whether we think the Q Explorist is worth your money.

Fossil Q Explorist HR price and release date

You can pre-order the new Q Explorist HR watch directly from the Fossil website now, but you'll be waiting until mid-September for it to arrive on your doorstep in the UK.

If you live in the US you should find the watch is ready to buy online and in Fossil stores now.

Pricing is £250 for the UK and $275 for the US (about AU$380), which is around a similar price as the last generation watch with those in the US having to spend a bit more to get this wrapped around their wrists.

Design and display

The Q Explorist HR is a larger watch - the company has its new Q Venture HR for those with smaller wrists - and it features a premium build metal design.

You have the choice of a selection of different designs to choose from. For the watch body, you'll find it comes in either blue, silver, black or stainless steel. There are a variety of strap options including metal links or a silicone band.

There's a leather option - this is the one we're using, and we really like it - that has silicone on the inside that makes it comfortable for exercising. You can see all of the design and strap combinations on Fossil's official website.

We've found the brown leather mixed with blue body to be a bold look, but the Q Explorist HR looks attractive in this color.  It sits large on your wrist (it's a 45mm case after all) but you won't find it all that heavy as Fossil has managed to keep it light.

The right hand side of the watch has two buttons that you can tailor to open whatever apps you see fit, while in the middle is a crown that you can rotate to skip through menus within the UI.

Fossil's screen tech here is clear and bright, but we don't currently know the screen size. It's a comfortable size for navigating around the UI, plus it has always-on technology that means you can spot the time on your wrist without having to turn it on.

If you're looking for a watch with a particularly big display, this is well worth putting on your shopping list of potential options. Be warned though, you can still see a relatively thick black bezel running around the outside - it won't reach out to the edges of the watch.

Specs and features

Everything from previous Fossil watches is available again here, but this time there's some new tech inside that adds some extra features.

There's an NFC chip that allows you do Google Pay from your wrist meaning you can make quick and easy contactless payments.

On the fitness side of things, there's a heart rate monitor on the rear that should give you a clear reading of your beats per minute plus you'll have a GPS chip inside to track your location too.

The watch comes running the latest Wear OS software, which is easy to navigate and Google is currently pushing lots of new updates to improve the platform. 

Having Wear OS means you can download any Wear OS app from the Google Play Store and have it running on your watch right away, plus it'll worth alongside your iPhone as well as an Android device.

Battery life

We've had the luxury of using the Fossil Q Explorist HR for a couple of days before posting this hands on review - we'll do even more testing for the full verdict - and we've found the watch will last around a day on average.

It may be capable of a little bit more with slightly more limited usage, but as we've been testing out a variety of features we found the watch would only last around 24 hours from a single charge.

The charging plate is magnetic so it'll attach easily to the rear of the watch, but it means you won't be able to charge this watch up from other Qi wireless chargers when you forget your specific Fossil charger.

On the other hand, we found the watch charged up remarkably quickly so it shouldn't take you long to pump more battery into your watch when you need it.

Early verdict

The Q Explorist HR has some solid tech upgrades that make it worthwhile for those looking for a large Wear OS watch to adorn their wrist.

Not everyone will love the design, but it looks premium and some may really enjoy how it looks. We're currently in the middle of our review testing, and we hope to give you our full verdict on the Q Explorist HR soon.

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