Nixon’s Mission, powered by Android Wear, positions itself for a down-under launch on 11 October

Nixon’s entry into the Android Wear smartwatch world was announced earlier this year (six months ago, in fact) and since then, we’ve anxiously been awaiting its arrival here in Australia (and for our friends overseas, there too!) Well, we need wait no longer, with Nixon announcing the worldwide launch for the 10th of October, which will be the 11th here factoring in time differences (they’re a US brand, after all).

Nixon is a brand with established kudos in the fashion / watch industry, and it’s great to see those with a pedigree of design talent entering smartwatches. We’ve already seen Fossil getting on board, and Nixon makes another entry well worth having; let’s face it, the technology brands don’t have a monopoly on form and function, and the Mission proves that. Designed for outdoors use, it comes with a partner app to power up your skiing, surfing, snowboarding and more, with weather forecasts and other data built right in.

Of course, being a technology journalist, these activities are somewhat beyond me, but for those who enjoy them, the Mission will be a great crossover of tech and fashion on the seas and slopes. The tech nerds won’t be left wanting, with a 400×400 AMOLED display, Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor (its new!) and plenty of sensors including GPS, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, compass, gyro, accelerometer and humidity. Of course there’s tradeoffs, with no NFC, heart-rate or speaker, but we can mostly live without those.

Nixon have the Mission available for pre-registration now, so you can note your interest and be notified when the watch goes on sale here in just under four weeks. Having had a bit of time with one, this will be one of the more exciting smartwatch launches in recent times.