Diesel is the latest brand under the Fossil Group umbrella to launch a new Wear smartwatch that comes packing a speaker.
The Diesel On Axial joins the Fossil Julianna HR and Carlyle HR in adding a speaker so you can now hear responses from Google Assistant and listen to music without headphones. It also means you will be able to take calls from the wrist when the watch is tethered to a compatible Android smartphone or iPhone.
Essential reading: Best Wear OS smartwatches to buy
Along with that speaker, the On Axial will be brought into a line with other Fossil Gen 5 smartwatches packing in the latest Snapdragon 3100 processor to power Google's Wear OS platform. Hopefully that will improve on the quite sluggish performance we experienced on the Diesel On Full Guard 2.5.
There's now 8GB of storage to offer more room for storing apps and music, new extended battery modes to give you multiple days of use while still tapping into features like notifications and heart rate. Though general battery life will be in the same 24 hours ball park as the last Diesel smartwatch.
This is a watch that still runs on Wear OS of course, so will you get access to Google's Assistant and Google Pay for contactless payments. Like Diesel's Gen 4 watch, there's built-in GPS, a heart rate monitor and a swim-proof design. Diesel has also thrown on its own software extras to offer more customizable watch faces and quicker access to features like music control and activity tracking.
In the design department, you can expect a typically rugged, industrial look to keep it in line with Diesel's traditional watches. It's got rivets and metallic accents, with your option of gunmetal, silver and bronzed stainless steel models. There's a 1.28-inch, 328ppi, AMOLED display housed in a 44mm watch body that measures in at 12mm thick. You'll be able to choose between black leather, blue denim and stainless steel bands to further personalise your Wear watch.
Diesel has also worked on some bespoke dials for the Axial, including a trippy-looking option called the "Information Tunnel", which all of the watches below are sporting, which gives a 3D-like effect to the face. Other dials will, of course, be available to pick from, and optional weather effects can also give you at-a-glance impressions of the weather outside.
The Diesel On Axial smartwatch will be available worldwide from October 2019 and will be priced at $350. It also joins Puma and Armani, as fellow Fossil Group brands to get launches at IFA where will be getting a close look at the new Gen 5 watches.
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