Skagen Hagen Connected Review

Skagen Hagen Connected Review

Smartwatches had their debut a few years ago and have ever since taken the world by storm. There have been many videos, blogs, and reviews written about them over the years, so much so that the internet is laden with information about them. But what makes them so popular? What makes everyone go crazy about these pieces of technology?

Those who have probably had the privilege of using a smartwatch before might say the push notification feature has changed their life. This is to mean that any calls, messages, and notifications arriving in your phone are pushed to your watch. Basically, it makes mobile devices a little less intrusive in our daily lives. This feature is important especially for individuals who have turned into phone addicts or phone zombies. The feature allows you to stay more in touch with your immediate environment and be more social without missing out on the important messages and notifications.

But is that all that smartwatches offer? Well not quite. These units are also designed to provide fitness and activity tracking, music control and some even go ahead to act as camera controls for your mobile devices. When you put some thought into it, you will realize that smartwatches are basically devices that complement your smartphone, provide notifications, track activities and come with several other functionalities that vary from one smartwatch to the next.

That said, there is a new breed of smartwatches that is finding their way into the market – the hybrid watches. These are slowly but surely taking over the world. Hybrid smartwatches take the core features of smartwatches including the push notifications and fitness tracking abilities and marries them with the analog, stylish watch design that most smartwatches seem to be lacking. The end product is a cool and stylish timepiece you would find on business men with core smartwatch functionality but without the drawbacks of the smartwatches.

The hybrid smartwatch that we shall have a look at today is the Skagen Connected Hybrid Smartwatch. Now Skagen is a Denmark Brand for watches made by Skagen Designs Limited. The company is currently a subsidiary of Fossil one of the largest Fashion Company dedicated to creating American Vintage watches. While Skagen is not the very first company to produce smartphone connected wearable tech, its Connected Hybrid Smartwatch gadget is arguably one of the most stylish there is. The unit comes with a stylish and sleek exterior and is feature packed. When you first lay your eyes on it, you might not notice it is a smartwatch.

The Skagen Connected Hybrid Smartwatch

You can consider this unit to be a middle ground for the traditional watch and the Samsung or Apple watches. On the outside, the unit looks like an analog watch with a timeless design. The unit comes with no fancy display and no ports. It is simple and highly functional as you will soon see.

Design

The unit has a Danish style design that has proven to be appealing to most style oriented individuals. The watch has a thickness of 11mm and a strap width of 20 mm. These measurements make the unit significantly larger than traditional watches which are way slimmer. But the size is acceptable since it has to house the basic watch gears in addition to the smartwatch sensors, chips, and motors. But in comparison to other smartwatches, Skagen measures up pretty well and is even slightly slimmer than the Apple Watch.

On the right side of the watch are three buttons which users use to operate the hybrid watch. The top button tells the day of the month (calendar), the second button tells the date, the 2nd time zone and control the alarm while the third button can be set to activate the camera, the goal tracker, control the music or ring your phone when you have misplaced it. This last button and feature work together with the watch app which we shall talk of later on.

Skagen puts in a handy feature to complement the 2nd time zone functionality. The unit auto-updates the time to the correct dates and times when you cross over to continents or states with different time zones. This way, you are always on time without having to tweak the watch.

The watch face itself has two dials. One is the main clock and the second is a small dial that comes with two functionalities. On the left side of the watch are the notification colors. The colors on this notification dial (one-half of the entire dial) can be adjusted from the Android or iOS app. The colors you can use are blue, gray or white. You can filter the notification color by contact or by applications. This way when you feel your watch buzzing you will know exactly who it is or whether it is an important notification you need to respond to ASAP.

The other half of the dial is progress meter that helps in goal tracking. These goals can be your walking, water intake, exercise, calories burnt and more. On this, you can even add more of your goal through the application complementing the use of this smartwatch. So say for example you have set your goal to 10.000 steps a day, the watch will continue to keep track of your steps and notify you when the goal is achieved. It also has a meter gauge to show you how well you are doing in your goal for the day.

The hybrid watch comes with a dark face with tan leather straps there are also other color styles and combinations available. But if the color of the straps does not suit your style or taste, or for some reason would like to change them up, you can do so with great ease courtesy of the Skagen easy to remove strap mechanism. You can pair the watch with any other 20 mm strap you prefer.

Ease of Use

• Setting up this watch is easy and fast.
• The first step is installing the Skagen app on your mobile device and creating an account.
• Switch on the Skagen watch by pressing on any of the three buttons
• Pair with your smartphone by holding down any of the buttons for about 5 seconds. You will notice the small dial spinning as it pairs
• Update the firmware
• Calibrate the watch using the buttons on your app ensuring that they match with the watch hands on the watch
• Enter valid units for distance, weight, and height
• Connect to other application including Google Fit, Up By Jawbone, UA Record
• Provided the watch is paired with your watch the time will always match the local time of the time zone you are in.

App

We have established that the watch is connected to the Skagen connected app for iOS and Android. The app is easy to use and it even takes you through the initial setup steps ensuring you can connect your watch.

When you are set to go, you can configure the alarms, notifications, second-time zone and adjust the sleep, step and other custom activity goals. The notifications provide you with up to 6 contacts to push alerts when they email, text or call all of which you can further customize independently.

The app also allows you to specify the metric of the variables entered and the strength of vibrations for your notifications.

Smartphone Compatibility

The watch automatically syncs with smart devices that run on Android and iOS. For Android devices, the unit runs on Android 4.4+ and iPhone 5 or iOS 8.2 and above.

Battery Life

This is the downside of any smart device, smartwatches and smartphones alike. Manufacturers are getting better with battery technology, but still, we wouldn’t say they have hit the jackpot yet. It is probably because of this that smartwatches have not taken off as manufacturers had hoped they would. Now truth be told, human beings are creatures of habit. They tend to cling onto what they find to be familiar. This is to mean that since they have for the longest time grown accustomed to watches with long battery life, they expect smartwatches to match the same. Unfortunately, very few do.

Luckily, the Skagen Hagen Connected Hybrid watch is different. First and foremost, the watch does not need to be recharged. So this makes it one less device you have to remember to recharge at night. Second, the unit’s battery lasts for up to 6 months depending on the usage.

Who is this Skagen Hybrid watch for?

The Skagen Connected Hybrid watch is for the individual who is interested in keeping track of their health and have some smartwatch features but works in environs where digital smartwatches are frowned upon. In addition to this, individuals with a strict sense of fashion should prefer this watch given its classic look.

The watch is however not for individuals looking to have advanced fitness tracking features such as monitoring the heart rate. The watch works fine, and it has a state of the art quality and builds. However, most individuals hate the fact that they have to press a button to see the date.

Our Final Conclusion

The Skagen Hagen Connected Hybrid Watch nailed it on the design, easy setup and battery life.

What do you like about this Smartwatch? Feel free to share your views and thoughts about the hybrid watch review in the comments section. If you have any follow up question feel free to jot it down as well.