Three of the best smartwatches to help you stay connected

We’re heading into the long July 4 holiday weekend, and the easy thing to write about would have been watches from the good ol’ US of A. Alas, I’m not American and we are not in America, and if I’m honest, American watches are downright awful.

Sorry, Uncle Sam, but it’s true. You are, however, great at other things and I abso­lutely loved the 1996 movie Independence Day. Still do. “Welcome to Earth!” Ah, memories. Hang on. Two decades ago? What have I done with my life?

Where was I? Oh yes, so this week I’ve cobbled together a brief and, one hopes, helpful rundown of new smartwatches. Well, I say “smart­watches”, but there’s a confusing number of names for them nowadays, including “connected watch” and “hybrid watch”.

In essence, if your watch is able to spout data back at you, either directly or via your phone, we are talking about a smartwatch.

That thing I said about American watches? OK, Fossil isn’t so bad. Well, its smartwatches aren’t so bad, and the brand has gone all-out on tech since Apple came on the scene. There’s a bewildering number of Fossil smartwatches out there, but the Q Accomplice hybrid is a peach.