Google Just Paid $40 Million To Buy Fossil’s Secret Smartwatch Tech

W e all have only been hearing rumors about a Google Pixel watch. It seems like it would soon be turning into a reality. Today, Fossil  announced that it would sell some of its “intellectual property” to Google, in a whopping $40 million deal .

Under the terms, Fossil will also transfer a portion of its R&D employees , over to Google. In other words, the Fossil wearable tech team will now work under Google .

Since Google’s wearable operating system, Wear OS is doing well with constant upgrades , the only thing that the company lacks is a wearable device. According to Greg McKelvey, EVP and Chief Strategy and digital officer of the Fossil Group, the deal will result in the launch of a “ new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market “.

Even before this, Fossil has been working with Google for a while. The entire Fossil group (Diesel, Armani, Skagen, and Michael Kors) has launched a number of wearable devices running on WearOS. Moreover, all the Fossil’s digital-faced smartwatches run on Google’s Wear OS.

From what it looks like, Google is mostly interested in the manufacturing experience and expertise that Fossil shows on its hybrid watches: a device that has some features of a smartwatch but looks and feels like a traditional one.

However, we can’t overlook the internal tech. The tech, that Fossil attained from wearable maker Misfit for $250 million, back in 2015 could be related to tracking sleep, daily activities, custom watch-hand movements, and more.

Presently, Apple owns the market industry with its smartwatches. Not to forget, the ECG feature on Apple smart Watch 4 that skyrocketed Apple watch sales. Amidst this, it will be interesting to see how a Google “Pixel watch” would perform.

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