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Fossi's Wrist PDA Palm OS watch won a Best of Comdex award in 2002, a few months after the company first ntroduced the device to the world. Due to production problems, however, Fossil kept pushing back the release date for the watch until it didn't make sense to further pursue its release.

The company said at the time that it couldn’t resolve issues with the 1-inch display for the WristPDA, as the supplier of the screen couldn't get image quality up to minimum standards.

So it appeared the Wrist PDA's day was done ... before it even began.

Fossil never fully abandoned the concept of a Palm-based PDA the size of watch, however. A spokesperson for Fossil emphasized this to Infoworld this week by telling the magazine it plans introduce a new generation of the Wrist PDA in January at CES 2005. It appears that the new model resolves the issues that kept the previous edition from hitting the market.

Although the spokesperson gave no details, he did say the new Wrist PDA would be more powerful than the original (see image). The earlier model would have included 2MB each of RAM and flash memory and a full (if tiny) 160 x 160 pixel screen. Other features included an internal rechargeable battery, USB charging/syncing, Palm OS 4.1, and a 33MHz processor.

This news follows Fossil's announcement last week of two new brands and three styles in its line of Net Smart Watches. These watches leverage wireless technology and Microsoft's MSN Direct Service to bring basic information to the wrist. The latest ABACUS (the company's technology brand) Net Smart Watch styles costs $129, while the new FOSSIL brand Net Watch sells for $199.

MSN Direct service is available in the U.S. and Canada only. For $39.95 per year, the 'Smart Plan' lets subscribers receive news, entertainment content, horoscopes, sports updates, weather forecasts and personalized stock and lottery information, with the freedom to personalize content the user wants to receive. For an additional $20.00 per year, youcan also choose to receive calendar appointment reminders via Outlook and personal messaging through MSN Messenger.