Diesel’s super hot Wear OS watch is finally on sale (Updated)

Update: September 1, 2020 at 9 a.m. ET: After quite the delay, Diesel is finally launching its Fadelite smartwatch. It’s available in four color options — clear, black, blue, and red — but you really should just buy the all-clear model. You can find it at Diesel.com at the link below for $275.

Original article: January 6, 2020 at 8:42 p.m. ET: The smartwatch market can get a little boring from time to time. Wearable hardware doesn’t progress as quickly as smartphone hardware, so new smartwatches can feel iterative. That’s why I’m excited for Diesel’s new Fadelite smartwatch.

Just look at this thing. All four colors of the Diesel Fadelite come with different levels of transparency in both the case and the straps. The all-clear model (above) is my favorite. It doesn’t even look like a smartwatch, which I love. I seriously didn’t want to take this thing off at my demo at CES today.

For those not all-in on the fully transparent look, the Diesel Fadelite comes in three other colors: blue to clear, black to clear, and red to clear.

Diesel is attempting to make this smartwatch appeal to men and women, unlike the company’s Axial smartwatch that was really only marketed towards men. The Fadelite has a 43mm case, so it should look better on people with smaller wrists. I don’t have gigantic wrists and the Fadelite looked fine on me.

Despite the Fadelite having the upgraded Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC, I’m a little concerned about its internals. It only has 512MB of RAM (half that of other well-performing Wear OS watches) and just 4GB of onboard storage for music and apps. This is a bummer considering the Fadelite’s price tag and the fact that Fossil and its partner brands have launched other watches with better specs. We’ll have to wait and see if performance takes a hit because of that low RAM amount.

The Fadelite isn’t expected to launch for a few months, so there weren’t any full working models at my demo — I only saw retail mode units, so I wasn’t able to test out its performance.

Elsewhere, the Diesel Fadelite comes with a built-in GPS, heart rate sensor, NFC for Google Pay, and a redesigned globe dial that allows you to see two additional time zones.

Interested? You’ll be able to buy the Diesel On Fadelite from Diesel stores, diesel.com, and other retailers for $275.

I want to hear your thoughts on this translucent watch. Hot or not? Let me know in the comments.