Rating: 
Summary: Smart Watch!
Review: I live in Chicago at the very edge of the coverare area. I found the watch setup to be quite easy and configuring channels via MSN Direct is easy as well. It took a bit of time before the data started flowing to the watch, but once the initial "download" was complete it updates quickly. The screen is very readable even for news articles, which is remarkable given the screen small size. The watch is a bit bulky, but given all the it does (time, stop watch, alarm, news, weather, calender and appointments) it is pretty amazing. I have loaded the Outlook addin that allows appointment to sent from Outlook to the watch. This is very, very cool. I really love my smart watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Cool looking - but Timex Internet Messenger watch better
Review: These watches are cool looking - but having to recharge your watch every 3 to 7 days seems like a pain. Timex has has the Internet Messenger Watch for a couple of years. Does all the same things - stock quotes, weather, your horoscope, sports, very customizable. Also - can send reminders. Does basically all the same things - the battery lasts a lot longer. Unfortunately they have been discontinued. When you bought the watch for $100 you also got a free year of nationwide service that worked pretty much everywhere with Skytel. You got an 800 with your own voicemail, and unlimited text messages. While these watches might look cool - they're more expensive and aren't really doing much new - plus coverage is a lot less limited. The Timex was was also an Ironman - waterproof - not sure if these are... It's funny how they play the technology as something new - but it's been around for several years now.
Rating: 
Summary: Not just a gadget...more useful than expected
Review: I'm a techno-geek, and become interested in any new device that features a microprocessor of some sort. After reading posts and reviews across the web about the Microsoft SPOT watches, I finally decided to take the plunge. I am absolutely delighted with my purchase, and am finding it far more useful than just a simple geek-gadget.I love the fact that my Outlook calendar syncs with the watch. Sure, a PDA an serve the same puprose, but I hate carrying a PDA everyhwere I go. Plus, the SPOT watch is automatically updated within minutes of making a change to my calendar. No cradle or hotsync required...the watch udpates wirelessly while it's sitting on my wrist, anywhere I might be in the local area. My wife can update my calendar to let me know she wants to have dinner tonight, and it would show up on my watch while I'm at work. Personally, I think that's pretty amazing. When an appointment time nears, it pops up on the watch along with a countown timer (in 15min, 14min, etc...). Neat! Stock updates are great also...a quick glance at my watch tells me how my stocks are doing today. Again, all wirelessly no matter where I might be. While the quotes are somehwat delayed (maybe 30min), still useful for keeping general track of how you might be doing for the day. Everything was easy to set up, the watch really isn't much bigger than my Seiko (though I have big hands and wrists), and I don't find anything about the watch's materials to be cheap at all. First time charging went smooth as silk, and set up took 5 min with content arriving on the watch within 30 min of activation. Charging is cool to...you just set the watch on the included charging stand (I do it when I go to bed at night). No wires to plug in or anything...the watch charges by induction. A full charge is supposed to last 3-5 days, but I guess that would only come into play when going out of town. Of course you must take the charger with you, so that's a bit of a hassle I suppose. Overall this is a great watch and represents some cool new technology. As far as service charge goes, I don't find $59 for 12 months to be unreasonable at all. If you want to buy the watch and try it out, you can sign up for monthly service and get the first month free, then switch to yearly. That way if you decide to return your watch, you won't be stuck with the service.
Rating:
Summary: Great Toy
Review: Bought this watch in Vegas when it first came out, have had it for 3 weeks now and except for one static discharge where it went dead on me and I had to reboot it has been perfect
It does what it advertises and is very convenient, Messenger feature is a good enough reason alone to buy this watch
Rating: 
Summary: It's crappy...
Review: I was very excited to get my watch. Unfortunately the excitement faded pretty quickly as I had to let the darn thing charge for six hours before I could put it on my wrist. When it finally finished charging I quickly found out that the clasp and band are incredibly hard to work with. Once I was able to get the band to size and figure out the tricky clasp I was very disapointed with the way it fit. It really bites into my wrist. The service itself is fun, but I am able to get all of the same services on my cell phone. After two days of use, the watch started to malfunction. It would just shut off by itself. I called Fossil and they told me that it sounds like the watch was defective. I returned it the next day.
Maybe I'll cobble up a new watch made of my cell phone and some cheap leather...
Rating:
Summary: Beware Static Charges
Review: I loved the concept and the product, I was looking to buy one of these watches since last year. I am very disapointed by Fossil's design flaws: the antenna on the wrist is highly sensitive to static charges and my watch goes dead as soon as I enter my office building.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular flameout! wait for next Gen.
Review: I wanted to like this thing... and I did until i realized that it is extremely susceptible to static charge-- which wipes out the data and resets the watch. At least 20 times a day, all of my data would be wiped out and the watch would reset to 12:00. Signal strength was always pretty good-- but the watch is completely unreliable in my opinion. I have read some message boards on this watch and this is a common problem. It is a defective design. COMP USA charged me 15% to return it and on top of that MSN would not refund the up front yearly MSNDirect charge (however, after a few days, a MSN supervisor called back to say that they would credit the money back). I have read that the SUUNTO watch should be much better because the antenna is in the watch, not the band. Much less susceptible to static charge. Bottom line= Fossil made bad watch, COMP USA has terrible return policy, and MSNDirect almost swindled my [$]-- but after some persistence, they made right.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this watch
Review: Don't buy the watch. Here are the criticisms in brief:
It's big and ugly. It crashes. The battery dies within 2 days of use without frequent charging so you can't travel without the big charger. It isn't water resistant. Half of them die within 24 hours from the time you get them out of the package. MSN tech support is horrible. The coverage is spotty. The text messaging is full of glitches. The amount of information that you can get is about what you would get from the marquee at a bank. The documentation is sparse. The price isn't justified, the subscription price isn't justified. Don't buy this watch. Amazon recently removed a half dozen reviews that detailed the serious flaws in these watches. These reviews were the most detailed, and thoughtful and received the most "helpful" votes. The star-rating was considerably lower before. I'm sure that their sales of these defective products went up immediately after removing the negative reviews. I am in awe that Amazon shows such disregard for their customers.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I suspect that the positive reviews of these watches are all from trolls hired by Microsoft and Fossil. Read the reviews for other MSN/Fossil watches as well as this one. You'll find that the reviews that are not highly critical all sound like they are quoting from ads. The large size, cheap plastic case, bad operating system, frequent charges and poor reception are what these watches are all about. Ask yourself if you really want to spend $60 dollars a year on yet another subscription service to get 2-line weather reports on your wrist. Do you like removing your watch every night to charge it? Do you enjoy rebooting your watch all the time after it crashes like a PC? Buy a PDA or a PDA cell phone. Don't waste your money on one of these watches.
Rating:
Summary: Seemed to work great for an hour
Review: I charged the watch for 4 hours and set up my MSN Direct service. All without a problem. The watch worked for about an hour and went dead! I tried to recharge, reboot and manually start the watch but it is just dead
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