Three of the best hybrid watches, for those who like form and function

A new year, a new column and some new watches. Actually, not quite. There’s going to be a deluge of new watches this week, when the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, the first big global watch trade show of the year, opens its doors in Geneva, so until then I’m going to keep my powder dry on the shiny new stuff.

Instead, I’ll be taking a look at three examples of the increasingly popular hybrid watch. A hybrid is halfway between a smart­watch and a traditional analogue timepiece (quartz or mechanical).

I wasn’t convinced at first – I figured hybrids were trying to be all things to all people and not achieving any of it. But they have found an audience among those who want the bells and whistles of smartwatches but not the poor battery life and touch screen.

The hybrid lacks a lot of the functionality of a smartwatch – for example, notifications don’t appear on the dial, rather the watch will buzz or beep if you have a message; and you have to link it to your mobile to get much of the technologi­cal value out of it – but if you are comfortable with a half­way-house solution, a hybrid could be for you.

Classically designed smart­watches might seem a bit odd, as there’s a clash of purposes, but if you can’t stomach the fully modern touch-screen hoo-ha and prefer a more traditional analogue face, then you can’t go wrong with the Frédérique Constant Horological Smartwatch.