The smartwatch market has been experiencing a decline of late, thanks to older generation chips, as well as dismal battery life on most smartwatches. This might change with Google rumored to announce a couple of smartwatches along with their Pixel smartphones this year, with Qualcomm’s newer generation chipsets for smartwatches. However, well-known fashion brand Emporio Armani doesn’t want to wait, and has announced a new smartwatch for fashionistas.

The Emporio Armani Connected 2018 is the brand’s latest smartwatch that seems like a perfect blend between tech as well as fashion. The smartwatch is powered by Qualcomm’s aging 2100 SoC and runs on Google’s WearOS platform, with support for standalone GPS, NFC for contactless payments, a heart rate monitor, water proofing up to 3ATM pressure, and a claimed battery life of 1-2 days. This enables consumers to use the smartwatch as a fitness tracker as well in order to track daily activities like steps walked, calories burnt etc. along with support for tracking other outdoor activities like running or cycling. The Emporio Armani Connected 2018 features a 1.19″ touchscreen AMOLED display within a sleek stainless steel case measuring 43 x 49mm and is available in a range of colors including silver, black and rose gold. Along with the mentioned colors, you can also choose a matching strap as per your liking from single link bracelets, leather, and mesh/Milanese loop options

Other highlights of the watch include some native features of WearOS including an integrated Google Assistant, the ability to reply to notifications right from your watch, and also listen to music or use Google Maps navigation without the need of your smartphone. Also, Armani seems to have installed a plethora of custom watch faces along with the pre-installed ones to aid with further customization of the watch as per the users’ liking. The Emporio Armani Connected 2018 will be available to purchase at the end of July with pricing set to start from $295. There is no word about the availability of the smartwatch in India, but given that Emporio Armani is a part of the Fossil group and Fossil has their entire array of smartwatches in India, it shouldn’t take long for the Emporio Armani Connected 2018 to make it to India as well.