Fossil’s Gen 6 line of smartwatches is almost 18 months old, but you wouldn’t know it from the company CES 2023 push. Fossil has found ways to make the Gen 6 line more current than ever, namely by updating it to run OS 3 and launching new editions such as the Wellness version and the E Ink hybrid model.
Keeping these watches fresh is important at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to find a platform-agnostic watch that doesn’t encourage you to commit to an entire ecosystem. Apple, Samsung and Google are positioning their smartwatches as complementary products to accompany their phones, headphones and other products. Fossil is one of the biggest brands still making watches that work with Android or iOS devices and supports Google’s Wear OS 3 software.
“It’s been a very relevant platform for some time,” said Brooke Eaton, Fossil’s vice president of product. “We made Wear [OS] 3 update when we launched [Gen 6] Wellness Edition, we made another update that was pretty significant in December.”
These efforts are also critical, as Fossil’s Gen 6 lineup risks otherwise feeling outdated with the arrival of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon W5 chips. The Gen 6 line, comparatively, runs on the older 2021 Snapdragon 4100 Plus chip.
Eaton also said that quarterly updates are planned for the Gen 6 line along with security updates, but he could not discuss whether a Gen 7 model featuring a newer chipset is in the works. However, he said the Wear OS 3 experience found in Gen 6 will carry over to future watches. This means that future Fossil watches will continue to be compatible with iPhone and Android.
Google Assistant support is also still in the pipeline for Fossil’s watch. The Gen 6 currently uses Alexa, but Eaton said Fossil is working with Google to make the assistant work. Fossil’s app makes up for other Wear OS 3 features, like fitness tracking, that aren’t included in Gen 6. (So far, the only Wear OS watch that includes Google’s Fitbit for fitness tracking is the Pixel Watch.)
Fossil isn’t the only smartwatch maker keeping its devices fresh with new software. Rival Mobvoi is in a similar position. It plans to update the $200 TicWatch E3, which also runs on the Snapdragon 4100 Plus, to Wear OS 3. The Montblanc Summit already runs on Wear OS 3 and offers iOS and Android compatibility. But it starts at $1,290, making it much more expensive than the $299 base price for Fossil watches. Meanwhile, other Wear OS rivals, such as the Pixel Watch and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series, remained Android-only watches, even though earlier Galaxy watches supported the iPhone.
Fossil also rebranded the Gen 6 watch and accompanying app to align with sister brands like Diesel and Skagen, which is another way the company can continue to make the Gen 6 look new and different, even though it’s otherwise identical on the inside . The apps used by the Diesel and Skagen versions of the Gen 6 are customized to appeal to the audience that typically buys watches from those brands, Eaton says. These include aesthetics such as the color scheme and messaging in the “About You” section that direct users to the brand’s social media and shopping. Otherwise, the apps are functionally identical.
Fossil’s watch collaboration with Razer, which was revealed at last year’s CES, is an exception to this approach. Unlike the Skagen and Diesel versions of the Gen 6, the Razer version syncs with the regular Fossil app, but includes Razer-specific watch faces.
Non-branded phone smartwatch makers are on the decline
While Apple and Samsung currently dominate the smartwatch market, the efforts of companies like Fossil are worth watching precisely because they’re not trying to lock customers into an ecosystem of phones, watches and headphones. This is becoming less common with other smartwatches.
Fitbit’s cross-platform compatibility has always kept me coming back to its trackers and watches. Fitbit products still work with iPhone and Android. But Google’s efforts to bridge the gap between Fitbit and the Pixel Watch make me worry that you’ll need one of their Android-only watches to get the best Fitbit experience going forward.
Samsung also supported both iOS and Android with their Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Fit line. But as Samsung focused more on cultivating its own Galaxy ecosystem of devices, it removed iPhone compatibility from its watches. It even locked the ECG feature of the watch to Galaxy devices only.
Besides Fossil, Mobvoi and Montblanc, Amazfit also continues to support both iPhone and Android using its own proprietary Zepp operating system. That means less app support, but its watches can claim 14 days of battery life, which is significantly longer than the one to two days of battery life found on the Apple Watch, Galaxy watches and Pixel Watch.
What’s next for Wear OS watches?
Although Fossil has found a way to support Gen 6, smartwatches running the next Snapdragon chip optimized for wearables are on the way. The Snapdragon W5 is said to extend battery life by a day over current watches and offer more functionality in low-power mode as well as support for camera-activated features.
But there is no announced date when watches supporting these chips will hit the market. That alone could be a big reason Fossil is hoping to get more out of the Snapdragon 4100 Plus chip and its Gen 6 lineup.