Fossil knows watches: its wide selection of timepieces are made of quality materials and with a consistent style while remaining on the affordable side of luxury. Now the fashion company is bringing its watch expertise to Android Wear with the Q Founder smartwatch. The most expensive device in the new line of Q wearables from Fossil, the Q Founder represents the first Google-powered smartwatch to come from a company that focuses more on style rather than specs.

That doesn't mean Fossil forgot about technical details: the Q Founder has a bright LCD display, it's powered by an Intel Atom processor, has a 400mAh battery, and works with both Android and iOS devices (as limited as Android Wear for iOS is, at least it's an option). It looks great on paper—and in person—but despite nice specs and even nicer looks, Fossil's Android Wear watch doesn't do anything to set itself apart from the other Google-powered options out there. No one was expecting it to revolutionize Android Wear, though. Instead, it could do something much more important for smartwatches and Android Wear as a whole.

Design: Very beautiful, very big

The Q Founder is, quite literally, the big sister of the Q collection. It has a 46mm round case, and my review model had a stainless steel, metal link band. There is a model with a genuine leather band that's a little less expensive at $275, but the all-silver model is the stunner and will cost you $295. The crown sits in the middle of the right side of the case on its 13mm-thick edge.

The Q Founder is not a small watch, so those with tiny wrists should take caution and consider the leather band option. My all-metal review unit featured a bracelet deployment clasp, and because it's so large, the watch was nearly unwearable for me. It could nearly slip on my wrist without me opening the clasp, and on the flip side, slip off if I turned my hand upside down. If you're set on the all-metal design and you have a smaller wrist, you'll have to get some links taken out—just like any other traditional watch. Thankfully, both models have interchangeable bands, so you can use the pins on the back of the metal band to take it off and replace it with any standard 22mm strap.

The face of a watch holds as much of its personality as its case and band, so Fossil created a few custom watch faces for the Q Founder. Currently there are just six of these designs, but even the more modernized options with digital clocks speak to Fossil's vintage aesthetic. I went with the face called "Kaleido," which breaks up the circle into small slices of bold colors that you can customize from three different color combinations. I think this watch face, out of all of them, best exudes Fossil's playful side.

The vibrant colors shine through beautifully on the Q Founder's 1.5-inch, 360 x 326-pixel display. Like other Android Wear watches, its display is always-on, but it dims after a few seconds so the light doesn't distract you. You can also place your palm over the entire display to dim it manually, which is a useful gesture to remember. One downside is that, like the Moto 360, the Q Founder's display has that irksome "flat tire" effect with the black bar at the bottom of the screen. Though it hides useful hardware like the ambient light sensor, visually it's like having someone constantly poking you just lightly enough that you can feel it.

One thing noticeably missing from the underside of the Q Founder is an optical heart rate monitor, which is fine since the Q Founder is not meant for working out at all. While other Android Wear watches have them embedded to take your pulse during the day or during a workout while using Google Fit, there's no reason to have a heart rate monitor on a device that clearly should never see the bright fluorescent lights of a gym.

Rather, the back of the Q Founder's case is smooth, matte black, allowing the watch to sit on its charging dock. Like the other Q devices, the Q Founder comes with a cushiony dock where the watch sits, as if on display, when it needs to charge. Fossil estimates the watch's 400mAh battery will last at least a day on one charge.