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Fossil's Q Founder makes a grand first impression with its stylish stainless steel casing and band, effortlessly switching between a brushed and polished texture. It's immediately evident to me that Fossil knocked this out of the park - as long as this is your favored style of wrist wear.
If it's not your thing, at least you can swap out the heavy stainless steel band for something a bit lighter. In the images splashed around in this review, I'm using a 22mm brown leather Android Wear Mode band provided by Google in its place.
The lugs of the Q Founder extend out from the circular build and result in a lower profile smartwatch, in a similar fashion to the latest Moto 360. Compared to the bulkier LG Watch Urbane, Fossil's smart wearable is, despite its larger size, a more compact package and generally juts out less on the wrist.
Its design gives you the sense that the Q Founder is smaller than it really is, which is saying a lot because this watch is actually quite large. At 13mm, it's thicker than the rest of its Android Wear competitors, only just a touch more than the Tag Heuer Connected, which sits at 12.8mm thick.
This smartwatch weighs about 72 grams, which is the more than any other that I've worn so far. To put things into perspective, the 38mm Apple Watch weighs 40 grams, the Huawei Watch comes in at 60 grams. It seems like a small difference, but you might think otherwise when it's on your wrist.
Around its back, you'll find a smooth, plastic back. It doesn't have the heart rate sensor that you might be expecting from a modern smartwatch. But on the plus side, it doesn't have the common, sometimes fidgety, wireless charging pins.
Instead, it conducts the charge through the plastic back. The included charging dock is an awkward pairing with a watch this nice looking. It's plastic all over and, compared to the more elegant wireless charging solution that you'll find with the Moto 360, this will disappoint those hoping for a stand that will elegantly show off the device.
The Fossil Q Founder works with any and all 22mm bands. If you don't have the tools to swap out the band pins yourself, you could opt for the Android Wear Mode bands, which come with the pin tool, some extra pins, and of course, a slick band that features a simple switch to install it in just a few seconds.
