With IFA 2019 heating up over in Berlin we’re starting to see a flurry of activity. One piece of news we were expecting from Fossil / Michael Kors was the release of at least one new Wear OS powered Smart Watch, well we got 3. Meet the Michael Kors Access Lexington 2, Access Bradshaw 2 and the all new fitness-focused Access MKGO.
As expected the new Lexington and Bradshaw models are based on the new Fossil Gen 5 platform including the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, 3 button set up with digital crown, a microphone and speaker for the Google Assistant and phone calls. this is all in addition to a HR sensor, NFC for Google Pay, magnetic charging and water resistance to 30 meters. Both devices have a 44mm case design and a 1.28-inch AMOLED display.
Overall they are a very strong offering and in our testing of the Gen 5 a very definite upgrade on any previous Wear OS devices. The two devices are retailing online right now for between $599 and $649 AUD depending on the finish of the device.
Michael Kors Access Lexington 2
Michael Kors Access Bradshaw 2
Unfortunately the new fitness-focused and slightly more affordable Access MKGO devices does not get the 1 GB of RAM or 8 GB of storage, instead coming with 512 MB or RAM and 4 GB of storage. The MKGO has a 43mm case and a 1.19-inch display and all of the standard radios you’d expect. The MKGO is also available right now for $399 AUD in both Red or Gold/white finishes. Unfortunately the pink model I think my wife, and many others would have gone nuts for wasn’t brought to Australia, at least not yet.
Michael Kors is a luxury fashion brand first and foremost, so if you’re seeing those prices and thinking these aren’t for me, the likely hood is they aren’t. We’d be very interested to know if the fashion forward consumers out there are lapping these up?
