Skagen Falster Review

• GPS
• Heart-rate monitor
• NFC
• Cellular connectivity

These four are basically considered the key power features of a modern smartwatch: no GPS means no detailed tracking of runs, nor any mapping services; no heart-rate monitor means no detailed activity or sports tracking; no NFC means no mobile payments; and finally, no cellular connectivity means that you need to be tethered to your phone.

So what can you do?

Well, everything else, of course.


My personal experience is that those advanced features are not something that I actually require of a smartphone, so missing them was not such a huge loss.

First and foremost, you can get all of your notifications, which is very convenient. The experience is still not quite perfect: when someone sent us a number of messages on Facebook Messenger, only the last one got transmitted properly and the others simply never arrived to the watch. You also have the option to reply to messages. You can dictate a reply by voice, you can choose an emoji or you can use an awful, extremely tiny and nearly impossible to use keyboard. We don’t recommend ever using the keyboard, but if you really, really need to type something, the option is there.

The Falster will also show incoming calls, but despite its built-in microphone, you cannot actually take a call on the watch and accepting a call on the watch will actually automatically start it on the phone (which is a bit strange and confusing in its own right, you can just take the call on your phone if you want to).

In terms of watchfaces, the choice of pre-installed ones is very limited and you need to go on the Play Store and download new ones, which is a bit of a hassle that could have been avoided.

The good thing about having this watch run on Google’s Wear OS is that you actually have some usable apps. The bad news is that they are still watch apps and their functionality is very limited. It still seems that apps on a smartwatch are rarely used and it makes sense just having a set of great core applications. Such ones pre-loaded on the Falster are the Google Weather app (good accuracy and good performance, but a bit limited in data) and Google Fit that shows your sports and activity.

Google Assistant

We wanted to spare a second to talk about the Google Assistant because we feel that it is absolutely transformative to the smartwatch experience.

The Google Assistant is positively the fastest and most impressive voice interface out there. It recognizes every accent with extreme accuracy, it is quick, reliable and absolute wonder to have. Okay, we might sound a bit too excited, but that is because the Google Assistant is just so much better than any other thing out there.

Setting reminders, calendar events, timers, sending messages, checking the weather, asking questions about general facts guarantees great results.

Unfortunately, for no apparent reason, the Google Assistant cannot control Spotify music playback and cannot do a few other things on the watch.

Battery Life

Real-life impressions tell us that you get one day of battery life on the Falster. And by one day, we mean that if you wake up early in the morning and go back home late at night, you will either have your watch in the single digits or completely dead.

Now, the Skagen Falster features an always-on display that contributes a lot to this drain, so it’s understandable, but we still wish it lasted longer. If you want to maximize battery life, disabling the always-on screen is the one step that will help the most. In comparison, the popular Samsung Gear smartwatches typically last 2 to 3 days, while the Apple Watch lasts one day, but finishes it with more juice than the Falster, and also does considerably more.

In terms of charging, you have a tiny magnetic charger that looks a bit flimsy, but actually does a fine job. In case you were wondering, it costs $25 if you need to buy a replacement, about on par with what you pay for other smartwatch chargers. Charging times, however, are very slow. You really need to leave your watch to charge the whole night, if you try to top it up during the day, you will not get much battery. For about 2 hours of charging, it only got from 0 to 57%.

Price, Rivals and Conclusion

With all this in mind, let’s talk price. The Skagen Falster is actually quite pricey for the basic smartwatch that it is: the steel-mesh version that we used costs $295, while the leather one goes for $275.

Here are the prices of the major rivals:

• Samsung Gear S3 for $300
• Samsung Gear Sport for $250
• Apple Watch for $330 | $360, or $400 | $430 with cellular

As you can see, all of these are watches with a lot more functionality that are offered for about the same, or even a lower price. What was Skagen thinking?

Now, if you don’t mind the price tag and want a good-looking smartwatch that wears comfortable, has a reliable voice assistant and has an always-on display option, the Falster is one good fit. Yours truly will actually keep on wearing it for a few days after the review to see whether it will stick. The takeaway: it’s a hesitant thumbs-up for the Falster.