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Misfit’s new hybrid watch is its smallest ever

Misfit’s new hybrid watch is its smallest ever

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Forging a new Path

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Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Misfit, the wearable company that started out making jewelry-like, low-power activity trackers before it was eventually bought by Fossil Group, is still making wearables under its own brand name. This year at CES, that means a rollout of new watches.

The new Misfit Path is a stainless steel hybrid smartwatch, meaning it looks like a traditional, analog watch but lacks a touchscreen and has the Bluetooth connectivity of a smartwatch. At 38 millimeters, it’s the smallest case size Misfit has ever made for one of its hybrid watches. It joins the Phase and Command watches in Misfit’s stable of hybrid watches.

The Path doesn’t have built-in heart rate sensors, but will track your steps, sleep, calories burned, and distanced throughout the day, syncing all of the data to Misfit’s mobile app. (Misfit also says you can customize the watch’s vibrations to get different buzzes for calls, texts, and app notifications, but personally I always find these kinds of customized haptic notifications confusing.) It’s water-resistant up to 50 meters and, like the brand’s other hybrids, runs on a replaceable coin cell battery that can last up to six months.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The hybrid smartwatch space has gotten more attention over the past couple of years, due in part to Fossil Group’s aggressive strategy across both its own brands and the fashion labels it partners with. They’re generally seen as appealing options for customers who don’t need or want a full-featured smartwatch, or, as Fossil Group has described it, for people who are still looking first and foremost for a fashion watch.

In August of 2017, Fossil Group cracked IDC’s top five list of global wearable makers for the first time. “While smartwatches from Michael Kors and Fossil took center stage, the company’s hybrid watch lineup also gained traction,” the IDC report noted.

The Misfit Path is expected to launch in the spring and will cost $150, a competitive price when compared with other hybrid smartwatches from companies like Nokia, Garmin, or even Skagen, another Fossil Group brand. The Path will be available in four different metal tones and color combinations.