Designer Kate Spade’s smartwatches have favored quite dressy styles so far, but that’s no longer the situation. The new KSNY Sport Smartwatch is less about cocktail hour, and more about striding it out for an hour on the treadmill. While the design is considerably more sporty, it hasn’t lost its all-important Kate Spade identity, many aspects of which have been amplified in this colorful, playful smartwatch.
I saw the watch prior to its announcement, and although it was a non-working prototype, it allowed me to get a close look at the details. Before digging into them, the most noticeable aspect is the low weight of the KSNY Sport. Made using a glass, fiber-reinforced resin and sporting a silicone band, it weighs just 40 grams. That’s almost exactly the same as the 41mm Fossil Sport watch, and it makes a huge difference in the way it feels on your wrist. It disappears in your hand, and will be comfortable to wear all day.
The bezel is not resin — it’s aluminum and has the signature Kate Spade scallop design around it, while the crown button is made from enamel and has a spade logo embossed on it. There are three colors available — a gold body with a green strap, a black body with a black strap and pink highlights, and a gold body with a pink strap and red highlights. The secondary button comes in a contrasting pink on each model. There are new watch faces too, including a new spades design where spade icons on the screen shift around based on your movement.
How about the technical specs? The case measures 42mm with an 11mm thickness, and the AMOLED screen has a pixel density of 328 pixels per inch (ppi). The silicone strap isn’t very wide at only 16mm.
The KSNY Sport is not built on Fossil’s new fifth-generation smartwatch platform, and instead shares tech with the Fossil Sport. This translates to a Snapdragon 3100 processor and 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage space. The battery should return a day’s worth of use before it needs recharging.
On the fitness side, the KSNY Sport has a heart rate sensor on the back, Google Fit integration, and GPS for run tracking, and is water resistant to 30 meters, making it suitable for swimming. Additional features include NFC for Google Pay, Wi-Fi, compatibility with both Android and iOS, and pre-installed apps from Strava, Spotify, and Cardiogram.
The KSNY Sport goes in a very different design direction from the Scallop smartwatches we’ve loved, and the bold color schemes are considerably more visually arresting than we’re used to seeing on wearables from the brand. However, it fits well with Kate Spade’s fashion range, and is sure to tempt fans of the company’s modern and exciting looks.
You can buy the KSNY Sport Smartwatch starting today for $275, or 270 British pounds, regardless of the color option you choose.