Fossil Q54 Pilot

The Fossil Q54 Pilot ($175) is a basic fitness tracker and notification device that looks like a regular wristwatch. It counts calories, distance, and steps, and vibrates to alert you of incoming calls, texts, tweets, and more. It's a handsome watch, and comfortable to wear, but it didn't count steps very accurately in testing and offers little else in the way of fitness features. For a good-looking watch with step-counting capabilities, you're better off with the Timex Metropolitan+. For true fitness tracking, there's our Editor's Choice, theFitbit Charge HR. If it's a smartwatch you're after, the Pebble Time is still the one to beat.

Design and Features
No matter which version you buy, the watch case is made of brushed stainless steel and measures 1.7 inches across and 0.6 inches thick. That's a bit larger than the Timex Metropolitan+ (1.65 inches wide, 0.47 inches thick), as well as the regular Timex Weekender (1.5 inches across, 0.35 inches thick). The Pilot contains a 3-axis accelerometer and haptic feedback motor, which accounts for the larger size.
Pairing, App, and Performance
Syncing the Pilot with your Android or iOS device is relatively simple. First, you need to make sure the watch is fully charged. Then, download the free Fossil Q app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, tap the Add Device icon, and follow the instructions. It took me a couple of tries to connect the Pilot to a Samsung Galaxy S6, but once paired the connection remained solid.

Conclusions

Fossil offers a stainless steel model of the Q54 Pilot with a metal link bracelet for $215. We reviewed the variation with the leather strap that costs $175.

The watch face is light beige, while the numbers and accents are light brown and black. There are three smaller dials on the watch face: a second hand, a minute hand, and a 24-hour clock. A date display sits between the 4 and 5 hour marks.

The bottom of the watch case is made of pale gray plastic, which peeks out noticeably, but doesn't clash with the stainless steel on top too much. There are two multi-colored LEDs at the bottom of the case: one at the 4 o'clock position, and one at 8. They flash different colors depending on the type of notification your phone receives. Unlike the Metropolitan+, you can't view your activity progress by looking at the watch face. Instead, you have to refer to the Fossil Q app (more on that in the next section).

The buttons on the side are used for analog purposes only. The top button starts and stops the smaller dials so you can use the Pilot as a stopwatch, while the bottom button resets it. The adjustment crown at the three o'clock position simply sets the time, just like a regular watch. You can't push it in and have the watch face glow, like you can on the Metropolitan+.

The Pilot comes with a soft, comfortable light brown leather strap you can swap out for other 22mm bands.

Fossil estimates the Pilot will last about seven days, depending on usage, which seems accurate from my experience. To recharge it, you need to place it on the same oblong stand that the Fossil Q Founderuses. It's frustrating, mainly because you have to loop the whole watch around the stand, and there's no magnetism to keep it from sliding away unless you position it just right.

The Pilot is rated 5ATM, so it can survive splashes, but you'll want to keep it out of the bathtub or pool—particularly if you're using a leather strap.

The app is on the simple side, but well-designed. Q Activity at the top shows you the number of steps you have to go for the day. Tapping the icon brings you to a screen where you can view a dial that shows your step progress, with the number of calories burned and miles traveled. Q Curiosity is a superfluous section that challenges you to complete random tasks, like showing everyone on your social media feed what you're reading for the summer. Q Notifications is where you'll customize all of your notification settings. You can choose the vibration strength (low, medium, high), brightness of the LEDs (low or high), and the time it takes between vibrations and LED alerts (short, medium, long). You can also configure vibration patterns for up to five contacts

You can select exactly which apps and services you want to push notifications, including calls, calendar events, Gmail, texts, and more. The notifications are instantaneous, but the vibrations and LEDs tend to blur together unless you remember precisely what each one means. I also noticed a bigger hit on my phone's battery life with the Pilot than with other notification devices.

As for fitness tracking, you're only getting the basics, including calories, distance, and steps. You can set up a profile that includes your age, height, and weight to better estimate calories burned, and you can choose a step goal. Once that's set up, you can view all your daily and weekly numbers in the Q Activity screen. You can also use the Pilot Q app to push collected data to the Google Fit, Jawbone Up, or Under Armour Record apps.

To test accuracy, I wore the Pilot alongside the Misfit Ray, a tracker I've found to be accurate in testing. Results between the two devices were frequently four to five hundred steps apart. There's are always going to be some variation, since trackers are dependent on stride length, but there's no option to adjust the Pilot's sensitivity like you can in the Timex app. While the Pilot will give you a decent idea of the steps you've taken, this isn't the right tracker if your primary concern is accuracy.

The Fossil Q54 Pilot is more like a traditional watch with a built-in pedometer than it is a full-fledged fitness tracker. So unless you really want the discreet, vibration-based push notifications, there's little reason to pick the Pilot over the Timex Metropolitan+ which delivers more accurate step tracking in an equally handsome form factor. If you really want to get a handle on your fitness, you'll want a dedicated fitness tracker, like the aforementioned Fitbit Charge HR. And if it's smartwatch functionality you're after, the Pebble Time is your best bet, and doubles as a lightweight fitness tracker.


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