Nixon Mission

The Nixon Mission is not for the fair-weather smartwatch wearer. It’s a beast of a device, built to withstand surf and snow and not just a rush hour commute. 

It’s certainly not discrete; the weight of the thing will mean that you will forever remember it’s on your wrist. 

Apologies for going all meta on you, but it’s on our wrist right now, getting in the way of typing, clunking down on the desk like a diving bell. It’s a watch that does not let you forget that you are wearing it. 

And, while the black version we tested only stood out because of its size, there are thousands of color variants to choose from. 

Nixon wants this watch to be noticed but does it really do enough to stand out? We’re unconvinced.

Nixon Mission price and release date 

• Out now, available in the US, UK and Australia
• Price wise it’s £339/$349.95, around AU$599

The Nixon Mission has a price that isn’t for the faint hearted. If you fancy strapping this hefty device to your wrist, then you are looking at paying £339, $349.95, AU$599. 

This puts it firmly into Apple Watch 3 territory. But what do you get for that price? Well, the packaging it comes in is decent - it comes with a big protective case and some nice flourishes such as a charger with a rope lead, which goes with the Mission’s outdoor style. 

The watch itself is extremely well built, slathered in stainless steel which definitely doesn’t come cheap. And there are many variants to choose from. For instance, you can change the color of the case, the bezel, choose from 30 different rubber straps and five steel straps. 

There’s 18 bits of artwork to choose from for the inside of the watch and different faces. In all, Nixon is boasting over 4,000 variants. 

We’re going to just have to trust them on that one. The only variant that costs extra is the steel strap - choose this and you have to add £20/$20/AU$35 to the price. The steel strapped Nixon Mission is the version we reviewed so it pictured throughout this review.

If you fancy buying yourself another strap, the rubber versions cost £45/$45/AU$60 each. 

Design

• Built for snow and sea
• Sizable 48mm case
• Stainless steel bezel

The Nixon Mission is built for extremes. It’s 16mm thick for a start so you better have big sleeves if you want them to go over the thing. Its fascia is 48mm in diameter, made from a polycarbonate case, packs a stainless steel bezel (which takes things to 50mm) and a slab of Gorilla Glass to protect the Mission’s delicate computing innards. 

And what innards they are. There’s built-in GPS for a start, which already puts it ahead of its nearest (in looks at least) rival, the Casio Android Wear watch. 

A Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor makes an appearance - which hints at a decent battery life but that unfortunately doesn’t seem to be the case here - and then there’s the impressive ability to withstand 10ATM water pressure. 

While this isn’t good enough to go diving, it does mean that if you fall off your surfboard wearing the thing, it’ll survive the water crash and then some. There’s also 4GB of internal storage for all your music and app needs, and 512MB of RAM - standard Android Wear 2.0 fare, then.

We reviewed the Nixon Mission with a stainless steel strap and boy did our wrists feel it, it certainly added to the weight of the thing. If you were to delve into the surf or snow, then you maybe better suited to one of the rubber straps which are also available in a multitude of colors. 

On the right side there is one button embossed with the Nixon name - it’s chunky for a reason, as it can be pressed if you are wearing gloves, ski gloves to be precise. 

On the left-hand side of the watch is a fiddly little lever that has to be shifted when you use the watch in water. This is because it is a protector for the microphone. Mics, to the annoyance of smartwatch manufacturers need to have holes burrowed into chassis to work. This is the case with the Nixon Mission, so if you want to surf with the watch you have to flick a lever and cover the mic up so as not to ruin it with the waves. 

Given you won’t be wearing ski gloves while doing this, it’s not a thing you can do with gloves on. It almost took our nail off a few times, too, trying to adjust it so be careful. 

Flip the watch over and you have the charging dots and a nice big back on which you can have a variety of artwork sketched. The charger that’s included slots nicely onto these charging dots, but we did have to make sure that it was charging a few times as a small nudge can take it away from the charge point. We would have preferred a nice click into place, instead of magnets.

Display 

• Fantastic 400x400-pixel screen
• Good size 1.39-inch AMOLED display
• No flat tire!

The AMOLED screen is a full 360 degrees, which is a lovely touch - meaning you don’t have to put up with the flat tire look. It is a good size, too, at 1.39-inches 400x400-pixels. That pixel cluster is one of the best around on a smartwatch, matching the likes of the Asus Zen Watch 3 and bettering the Huawei Watch 2. The bezel is raised, which protects the screen and helps with overall durability. Nixon has made the bezel out of surgical grade stainless steel. 

This doesn’t mean you can remove an appendix with the thing but it does mean it’s built to sustain some major knocks and water splashes.

The screen isn’t perfect edge to edge, but there is a small black rim around things which isn’t noticeable when you have one of the many Nixon watch faces up - as a black background is favored most of the time - but you can see it when you start to drill into some of the Android Wear apps on offer. Like we say, it’s hardly noticeable - at first we thought it was the shadow of the raised bezel - but it is there. 

The automatic brightness of the screen was decent enough for us but if you do want it brighter, then head to settings and turn things up to five. This will reduce the battery life, but it does give you a lovely bright, clear image. 

Other screen options include the ability to change the size of the fonts and you can also toggle off the Always On Screen functionality. 

If you do nothing with the watch, then the screen reverts back to a simple black-and-white watch interface with the Nixon logo. Move your wrist and it will go back to the screen you are on, or whichever watch face you have chosen. 

Specs and Interface

• GPS connectivity but no heart rate or NFC
• Supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• 4GB storage, 512MB of RAM

Anyone familiar with Android Watch 2.0 will be familiar with the Nixon Mission’s interface. Flick up and you get your notifications, flick down and you can access the watch’s settings. A soft press on the side button and all your apps appear in a semicircle. And if you flick to the right you can go through the myriad of watch faces that are available. 

It’s all simple and intuitive and means you have access to the likes of Google Maps, Google Fit, Google Play Music - as well as third party options. We’re not going to go into the ins and outs of Android Wear 2.0 here, that’s what our handy guide is for, but we felt the watch more than handled the software and didn’t throw up any glitches of note.

This may be because it’s using the Snapdragon 2100 chip which has been designed purely for smartwatches but with only 512MB of RAM on board we were expecting some stutter in places. Everything was as smooth as butter, though, and any niggles we did have were with the software not the hardware.

Nixon has mixed things up with its own additions which are ski and snow related. The Nixon app lets you track Surf and Snow information in relation to where you are. 

It’s a really nice touch. Head to the app and you will get relative information come up about surf and snow places near you. 

You can have this as a watch face, too. It does look a little cramped when all the information is there - the surf version has current wave height, wind in MPH and water temp - it’s a really nice touch. 

Famed third-party services Trace Snow and Trace Surf are pre-installed too. Given the likes of the Apple Watch 3 is now tracking this stuff, it’s great the Nixon has these apps on board. Yes, they are pretty much just third party pre-installs but having them on the watch shows Nixon’s intent. 

Compatibility

• Both iPhone and Android supported
• Requires Android 4.3 or above, iOS 8.2 or above
• Lack of NFC means no access to Android Pay

Just because a smartwatch is running Android Wear, it doesn’t mean that you have to bow at the altar of Google. 

The Nixon Mission needs a phone either running Android 4.3+ or iOS 8.2+ for you to get the best out of it. As with all of these things, supported features may vary between platforms - we tried out the Nixon Mission with a OnePlus 3T and all the functionality that Nixon quotes the Mission having worked as expected.

It is worth noting that even though Android 2.0 is on board, the Mission’s lack of NFC does mean that it rules out any Android Pay features. 

If we’re honest, this is probably a good thing for all contactless machines everywhere as the sheer heft of the Nixon Mission would probably smash through the devices. Okay, we’re exaggerating but there it goes again clunking on the table as we type.

Fitness

• Built-in GPS is welcomed
• Made for extreme sports
• Not really suitable for runners 

The Nixon Mission is all about fitness but it really depends what kind of activity you get your rush from. If you are a snow or surf fiend, then welcome to your new best friend. We would probably swap the stainless steel strap we tested for one of the interlocking rubber ones when out in the water. But that niggle aside, this is a watch primed for the extreme. 

Heck, even the button on the side has been made so that it can be pressed through a nice thick skiing glove, the screen clear and bright enough to be viewed through skiing goggles and the water resistance is proper water resistance (just remember to flick that lever). This is a watch made by skiers and surfers for skiers and surfers.

For a start, look at the features it offers: it has built-in GPS, a compass and humidity sensors. Oh, and a ton of ‘meters’: altimeter, gyrometer, thermometer, barometer and accelerometer.

Specs-wise, then, a big whoop. But even with built-in GPS we wouldn’t take it out for a run. Well, we did and are still suffering the wrist chafe. It is decent for hikes and things like cycling, however.

In short: if you are adventurous then welcome the Nixon Mission with open arms. If you are a spindly person that spends their life jogging towards the next reward badge, then look elsewhere. And the lack of a heart monitor really is another swing and a miss.

Battery life

• Battery ran down far too fast for our liking
• Use the GPS and it’s even worse
• Magnetic battery charger is hit and miss

This is where the Nixon Mission falls a little flat. Having built-in GPS is a great thing but it’s the ultimate battery sapper. 

Even when not using this feature the Mission only just lasted a day and a half, sometimes a little bit more. It just doesn’t stand up to heavy use. You need to keep this in mind when it comes to trying to get up that great big hill of hope - make sure you’ve fully charged the device and even then if you’ve got GPS on don’t expect much more than five hours’ solid use.

We expected more, given the Nixon Mission is a bulky device with plenty of room for a chunky battery and it’s running off the Snapdragon 2100 chip, too, which prides itself on battery efficiency. 

Verdict

The Nixon Mission is one of the most well-built smartwatches we’ve tried. It’s like Batman in the armored power suit - bulky, impressive and ready for war.

But looks are a little deceiving. Underneath the tough exterior is a watch capable of doing many things but its battery means it runs out of steam quicker that we would like. 

Who’s it for?

Salt-flecked Californians and winter warriors ready for the slopes, that’s who. It’s primed with all the data points you need for a good ski or surf and is self sufficient in GPS, while packed with other fancy features. And it’ll be a talking point apres ski. 

But it isn’t for those looking for a regular everyday smartwatch, despite having all the features Android 2.0 offers. It would be like wearing a suit to a sauna, total overkill.

Should I buy it?

If you want something subtle, suave, sophisticated, then the Nixon Mission is not for you. But it is a decent smartwatch from a proper watch company. It offers myriad features within its bulky frame and is primed for those who prefer ski and surf to surf and turf. 

It’s rugged, brilliantly made but falls short on battery life and is just too big for everyday use. 

But if you’re looking for a bulky, bolshy smartwatch that will certainly make an impression (and dent) then this is definitely for you. 

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