Look I knew smartwatches were just going to keep getting bigger as device makers try to cram more stuff into them, and I knew fashion and tech joining forces would lead to ridiculous stuff.
But a smartwatch with a 1.39-inch display is too much. The Samsung Galaxy Watch comes in a 42mm and 46mm design — both of which are enormous. The new Diesel Full Guard 2.5 Touchscreen Smartwatch has a 1.39-inch display with a case size of 47mm by 56mm. That’s huge!
The Full Guard 2.5 (named for the version and not as in inches of touchscreen display you must peer at each time you want to check the time or your steps) was announced yesterday, and beyond its sheer size, it’s a fairly standard Android Wear OS device.
It can handle NFC payments via Google Pay and has Google Assistant built in. It’ll last one to two days on a charge, and has 4GB of storage. It also has other more fitness-focused features usually found in much smaller devices like the Fitbit Ionic or Apple Watch Series 3 — such as GPS and heart rate tracking.
But really the star of this show is that 1.39-inch display, which probably looks nice if your wrist can support it. As I struggled with jumping from a 28mm dumb watch to the 38mm Apple Watch (the larger Apple Watch, for reference, is 42mm) I can safely say I could never wear the Full Guard 2.5.
Diesel says it has a case size of 47mm by 56mm. While that is technically a watch size a person (almost exclusively men) could wear, it is… super ostentatious. That’s the kind of watch you wear when you want to distract people or woo other watch enthusiasts. It isn’t something a normal person wears day to day.
But Diesel would like you to! The Full Guard 2.5 will come available in three colour combinations: A gunmetal grey case with a brown strap, a black case with a black strap, and a black case with a gunmetal grey strap. All three watches will go on sale in the US October of this year. Australian pricing and availability have yet to be announced.