Fossil Q Explorist HR and Venture HR bring heart rate tracking and Wear OS

Fossil just announced a new upgrade to its extensive range of smartwatches, by bringing new products called the Fossil Q Explorist HR and Fossil Q Venture HR.

Previously the brand had products called Explorist and Venture, but these two newer devices bring far more tech to make them some of the most functional smartwatches in the Fossil range. The Fossil Q Explorist HR is designed for men, while the Q Venture is marketed as for women.

Both new watches come with what the company is calling its Gen 4 tech. That includes a heart rate tracker on the rear of the device, GPS for tracking your location without your phone and a waterproof design that will allow you to take the watch swimming too.

Each is capable of recording your swim workouts, but they're also designed to be warn in the shower or a sun lounger without risking damage to the watch. There's also an NFC chip inside each that will allow you to make payments through Google Pay.

Each has a touchscreen, but we've yet to learn about the specs for either yet. Plus each is made of stainless steel that comes in a variety of different designs with the Q Venture HR coming in a 40mm size and the Q Explorist HR a touch larger at 45mm.

The straps will be interchangeable too with the Q Venture HR supporting 18mm bracelets and the Q Explorist HR a touch bigger at 22mm.

Packed full of new tech

It'll be running Wear OS, which is a rebrand of Google's Android Wear platform so it'll come with Google Assistant features as well as all of the apps you'd expect from a normal Wear OS watch.

Each is estimated to last for over 24 hours, according to Fossil, and come with a magnetic charger in the box to keep them pumped full of energy.

Each watch is running a Qualcomm 2100 processor, so it's the same chipset powering these as the most recent Fossil watches and Wear OS devices from a variety of other brands too.

The original Q Explorist cost $255 / £250 (about $445) at launch, so we'd expect a similar pricing for the next version of the watch as well. We hope to have time to try out the Q Explorist soon as well as some more details ahead of Fossil's appearance at IFA 2018 later in the month.