But there’s a glaring omission here, one that’s become harder to shake the more I’ve used the Falster 2. Skagen has built this smartwatch on Qualcomm’s older chipset, and with the first 3100 Snapdragon Wear devices starting to emerge, that decision is harder to accept.

Perhaps the most noticeable change with the Falster 2 is the addition of two buttons flanking the crown. They’re not as springy as the crown, and more rigid, but they open two shortcuts of your choosing. We opted to use the top button to open our Reminders, and the bottom button for Google Pay. It’s a handy way of limiting the need to scroll through the app drawer. Speaking of scrolling, the crown can also now rotate, which means you can use it to scroll through the Wear OS interface. That means fewer fingerprint smudges on the Falster 2’s screen — though we’d have liked scrolling to feel a little smoother. Somewhat sluggish performance Skagen typically bills the Falster as a men’s watch but it looks and feels small, light and compact enough to wholly justify itself as a unisex offering. This isn't exclusively the case with the Skagen Falster 2, of course, but it's worth noting for iOS owners considering any Wear OS watch. It will work, but not quite as effectively as if they're pairing it with an Android phone. The Pixel Watch, a product rumored for some time, has made its first official appearance. The new Google-branded smartwatch is just one of the announcements made during Google I/O 2022, the annual developer conference held by the company, and it follows a series of leaks related to the watch leading up to the show. The case is 2mm smaller this time, now measuring 40mm to give it more unisex appeal. Fit within that is a 1.19-inch touchscreen which, thanks to Skagen’s specially designed watch faces and the OLED technology, does a good job of hiding the bezel. There are plenty of colours too, mixing different stainless steel finishes with various strap options. And once again you can swap in any 20mm band of your choosing, thanks to the universal fitting. Add to that 30 metres of water resistance and you've got a pretty versatile smartwatch.Utilizing a small design, the smartwatch's fully circular display is now 40mm, down from the Skagen Falster's 42mm size. It's also 1mm thinner than the original watch, so it feels suitably sleek to hold. You'll soon forget you're wearing it, that's how lightweight it is. There are also two other buttons that can be set as shortcuts. By default, one is set to adjust the color of the watch face, while the other opens Google Fit. We'd recommend immediately changing one to Google Pay for convenience.

The various combinations of silicon, leather and metal mesh straps are also appreciated and overall I’d say the Falster 2 embraces the minimalist Scandinavian aesthetic better than its predecessor did. If you’re looking for a clean design through which to experience Wear OS, this might be the option to consider. The daily mode enables key sensors, including the always-on display while extended battery mode turns off most sensors except heart rate and notifications. You also have custom mode, which lets you turn on/off any sensor you want. Then there's the less popular time-only mode, which only tells the time. Like you’ll find on all Wear OS watches, notifications are more streamlined and easier to interact with, and swiping them away dismisses them on your phone. You should know, however, that some functions of Wear OS are limited on the iPhone, such as the inability to respond to iMessages.The Falster 2 has the same 300mAh battery as its predecessor, which never got us through a day. Does the addition of a heart rate monitor, GPS, and NFC make battery life even worse on the Falster 2? Surprisingly, no. We found the Falster 2 delivered about the same length of battery life, if not slightly better. That doesn’t mean battery life is good, though. Alternatives

By comparison, Apple’s Watch Series 4 quotes 18 hours of life, and that lined up with what we saw in our tests. Newer Wear 3100 Wear OS watches — like the Fossil Sport— can last just a little over a day, but not much more. Smartwatches that use a less attractive display, like the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music, can last up to five days. The Skagen Falster 2 is also swim-proof up to 30 meters. That's also where having a silicone strap comes in handy, keeping the watch extra lightweight when you're in the water. Compatibility As we mentioned earlier, the Falster 3 has made the most strides when it comes to performance. Not only do you have the new Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor as well as improved memory and storage, but you also have multiple smart battery modes. You might recognize them from the new modes that were also made available on the Fossil Gen 5 smartwatches. More watch faces are offered this time around, and all are deeply customizable to your liking. There’s also a ton of alternatives in the Google Play Store on Wear OS. We’re partial to the Analog and Digital watch faces, and we put our own spin on them by adding and removing Complications and tossing in a splash of color. Complications let you see information from apps at a glance directly on the watch face, such as your next calendar event.

Performance and software

Skagen offers a standard one-year limited warranty on the Falster 2 in the U.S., which covers manufacturing defects. Our Take On a technical level, it’s disappointing to find that, with a new wearable chipset from Qualcomm rumoured to be just around the corner, the Falster 2 is still lumbered with the now-dated Snapdragon Wear 2100. Despite this, the Wear OS experience felt perfectly snappy in my brief encounter with the watch and as such, it’s more a case of how performance degrades after long-term daily use. For fashion reasons though, we'd recommend the magnetic strap for those that want to use the Skagen Falster 2 on a night out, but the silicone strap is ideal for more active users. The Falster 2 comes ready to support the latest version of Wear OS, which I was prompted to update to right out of the box, and again, the updated interface is better for scrolling with the digital crown.

It was only at the start of 2018 that Skagen launched the first Falster, so the Falster 2, arriving less than a year later, is an unusually fast iteration. And in fact the design doesn’t stray too far from what came before, save for two new buttons on the side and a middle button that now works as a rotating crown. Wear OS has evolved into a very scrollable interface, so it’s great we’re seeing companies like Skagen take advantage of that. We expect this watch to last two years before battery life starts to deteriorate. Smartwatches don’t have a long shelf life, and two years is just about the right amount of time before you’ll want to upgrade to a newer model. The Falster 2 does have improved 3 ATM water resistance, so it can handle a bit of water. Should you buy it? The Skagen Falster 2's screen sums up a lot about the watch - it's straightforward in its effectiveness. Its screen is a 1.19-inch circular AMOLED with a 320 x 320 resolution. And at for the version with a leather or silicon band or for the more luxurious model it's not crazily priced for a Wear watch. So far, so good. You might think there’s no difference between the Falster and the Falster 2, but the changes are subtle. The bezels around the screen have slimmed down a little, and the case size has shrunk from 42mm to 40mm. The watch is also now 1mm thinner than its predecessor, which altogether means the Falster feels more compact and lighter on the wrist than ever before.As a fitness watch, it's not quite as reliable as a dedicated solution (such as one of Garmin's offerings), but it's ideal if you're keen to mix fashion and fitness. Battery life There are two pronounced and precise hardware buttons on the right side, positioned above and below a crown that plays nice with Wear OS’s rotational input support; meaning you can easily scroll through your apps list, notifications or messages without smudging or obscuring the screen. Despite these moving parts, however, this newer Falster is now also swim-proof, which combined with the other new hardware additions Skagen has made renders this a worthy alternative to the likes of the Apple Watch 3.