Fossil is a great choice for the mess of a Wear OS 3 switch, however, it’s difficult to stand out when you’re being dealt a poor hand.
The first Fossil Gen 6 was taken advantage of. As Fossil was still in the process of developing the device, Google and Samsung sprung the announcement of Wear OS 3 was on the way. Fossil discovered this in the same way as the rest of us. At the time, Qualcomm announced a newer more powerful wearable chip. At the time that Gen 6 was released, Gen 6 debuted, it was already running a likely last-gen chip, and the first Samsung Wear OS 3 wearable called the Galaxy Watch 4, was already on the market. It wasn’t because of Fossil’s faults however, it was because the Gen 6 was outdated before it was ever released. It’s unfortunate that the all-new Gen 6 Wellness Edition Fossil’s very the first Wear OS 3 watch that is a native Wear OS3 watch was left with the short end of the stick too.
Similar to the Gen 6’s predecessor, the Gen 6, the Wellness Edition features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 Plus chip. It has the same 1.28-inch OLED display, the identical 1GB of RAM as well as the 8GB of internal storage. Wellness Edition Wellness Edition also has the identical sensors. It’s basically the same watch, but with the same design, but with Wear OS 3 installed out of the box. (Older Gen 6 watches shipped with Wear OS 2, but can now be upgraded to Wear OS 3.) In retrospect, I’m still not certain what I expected to be different this time. However, after spending time with all the Wear OS 3 devices available out there, it’s as if there are two different versions that run the Operating System The Wear OS 3 available with Samsung as well as Google watches, and the Wear OS 3 that the rest of us are stuck with.
The appearance of a person isn’t everything
This 44mm Gen 6 Wellness Edition is an elegant watch. While it’s a bit larger over the 42mm Gen 6, I dig the more modern design and I like the more modern design of the buttons. I didn’t have as many accidental presses this time due to the slimmer shape of the button. It’s easy to swap out the standard 20mm silicone straps however I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable wearing it in its current form to an event that is formal. It’s comfy for everyday wear however it won’t be my preferred choice for fitness tracking or even among the top five its stainless steel casing provides an extra layer of durability. Make sure you don’t use it to the pool since it only has 3ATM of resistance to water. It’s great for washing dishes , but isn’t considered to be safe for swimming.
But a sleeker and more stylish appearance isn’t enough to make this Gen 6 lineup as a total. One of the things I was hoping for with Wellness Edition Wellness Edition was a better overall experience. I was able to get that, however, I was left with some unanticipated issues also.
Wear OS 3 on the Gen 6 is better than Wear OS 2 but it’s not necessarily quicker. Navigating menus is quick and notifications appear rapidly. Sometimes, you’ll notice an occasional pause in the process of start an app, or a screen is frozen for a moment before moving on. When I attempted to download Strava from the app on my wrist Play Store and it failed. It crashed several times. When the search worked, it didn’t “work,” Strava never ever appeared as a downloadable application. I was forced to download it via the website edition of Play Store, but it took some time before it was fully installed. It’s a bit odd, considering that I’ve certainly downloaded Strava via the on-wrist Play Store to all of the Wear OS 3 watch I’ve used. It wasn’t a big issue since Adidas Running came preloaded, and you can keep track of your workouts using the built-in Wellness app. But still.
The issue was not that it rendered this version of Wellness Edition unusable. It was just a bit odd. With the exception of occasional glitches, Wear OS 3 was still a great improvement. It was great to have more apps from third parties that actually function. It was possible to use Spotify with Wear OS 2, but it was not a pleasant experience. It’s significantly improved with Wear OS 3 and finally allows offline playlists. It also supports YouTube Music, SoundCloud, or Deezer. (Does anyone else use Deezer?)
It was great to find more apps from third-party developers that actually worked
It’s certainly not any superior to Wear OS3 on either the Pixel Watch or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 lineups. I’m guessing that the reasons for my performance issues resulted from 4100 Plus. 4100 Plus chip that came out in 2020 but didn’t show up in any watches until 2021. In the meantime, Samsung had already moved to a new chipset for their Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 series. Its Pixel Watch uses a last-gen Samsung chip, however it’s been upgraded to 2GB of memory in order to help make up for the. I’m sure that a new Fossil Watch running the Snapdragon W5 Plus chip will be better, but it’s not an option for now.
However, Wear OS 3 comes with additional features for Google as well as Samsung watches. The watches also have Google Assistant. Gen 6 Wellness Edition Gen 6 Wellness Edition does not. It’s not clear if it will be available some time in the near future, but at the moment it’s going to be necessary to use of Amazon Alexa. (It’s fine.)
Alexa is superior to the rest, but a smartwatch that runs Google software must come with Google Assistant. For tracking fitness and health, Google and Samsung’s Wear OS watches come with strong native apps, as well. Fossil comes with an app called the Wellness app, but although it’s visually appealing but it’s not fully integrated in your overall Wear OS experience. Its Pixel Watch has a Fitbit integration, which, while imperfect, is better that Fossil’s Wellness app. It’s easy to access the daily Fitbit dashboard within your Tiles, as well. Samsung’s watches come with Samsung Health that works more seamlessly within the One Watch UI skin. Samsung runs on Wear OS 3. The old Google Fit Tiles could at the very least provide a quick overview of where you are with your daily routine.
It’s time to talk about Fossil’s latest companion app. Wear OS3 has gotten rid of the older Wear OS application, which means businesses must develop their own apps to complement their existing ones. Montblanc has done it by introducing their Summit 3, and Fossil’s got it right here, too. This puts non-Samsung and non-Google Wear OS watches at a disadvantage. Google offers its Pixel Watch app, while Samsung has the Galaxy Wearable app. For health, they depend upon apps like the Fitbit or Samsung Health apps. It’s not ideal to depend on several applications, but the settings are simple to modify and there are plenty of ways to look at your historical and daily health information.
I’m not bringing any offense to Fossil however, its application isn’t very impressive. It’s beautiful, and it’s better than adequate for switching watchfaces and making Tiles more customizable. However, viewing health information from the past is quite, to put it simply it’s not intuitive and the basic data isn’t all that helpful. But, at the very least, you can see health data in the Fossil application at the time of launch. The app didn’t allow it use the Montblanc app , which I had to test the app, and I no longer have it to verify.
The only “edge” Fossil has against Google or Samsung is that its version Wear OS3 is iOS compatible. This is more of an intellectual win for those who use Android as well as iOS phones or prefer to switch between both platforms. iOS users who are loyal to the platform are more likely to select the Apple Watch or maybe a Garmin when they’re truly interested in fitness.
What’s going on with the batteries and settings?
Through many decades, Fossil has tried to alleviate the pain of the dreadful battery life of its watches. It was among the first companies to offer rapid charging as well as multiple modes for saving batteries. However, it’s already 2023 and a smartwatch has the ability to get you through the day. This model rarely has.
With the display always on I was able to get to bed before the watch switched on one of its modes for saving battery. The other day, I had AOD turned on and pulled off the battery at 9 AM with 100. By 11:11AM it had dropped to 70. In the meantime, all I’ve done is sit down at my desk and take the bus to get to work. I was able to get more mileage when I turned the AOD off, however running for a 30 minute GPS run , I needed to recharge the battery before going to bed in order to keep track of my sleep.
At the very minimum Fossil has made it so that watches can charge extremely fast. You can charge the full 80 per cent of the charge in 30 minutes.
I was playing around with a few settings to test whether I could extend battery life even further however, it brought me to another of the flaws in the Wellness Edition. It would appear to alter my settings every time I put it into the charger. It wasn’t always the case but enough to be a complete surprise. For instance, I make sure to switch off the sounds of smartwatches. My marriage depends on it. My spouse is not a fan of electronic beeps, dings and bloops, but they particularly hate Fossil alarms on watches. But the alerts were constantly turning off. There is no reason for this I’m sure it’s a bug that Fossil can fix in the future update.
More fit than fitness
Its Gen 6 Wellness Edition is not very good in the area of well-being. You can use SpO2, also known as blood oxygen monitoring. Like other watches, such as the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watches You can also perform spot checks of SpO2 with this Wellness Edition. It’s a relatively recent addition on Fossil watches, and I was thrilled to see as it indicated of how Fossil was making progress with regards to advanced health tracking was concerned.
It’s a shame it was the very first time that I attempted it, my watch reported that the SpO2 level was the level of 83 percent. For reference 95 to 100 percent is considered to be normal and anything less than 90 percent should be reason enough to seek medical attention. Naturally, I attempted to determine if it was an isolated incident however, the watch did not complete the subsequent readings. The watch kept insisting that I wear my watch more high on my wrist, and also to change the size of my strap however neither of these seemed to have any effect. (I could not have worn it more tightly since it was in the most tiny hole on the strap.) I restarted the watch and that did the trick, however I was still getting many more error messages than normally have with SpO2 readings on smartwatches.
Another metric I was anticipating I was looking forward to Cardio Fitness, or VO2 max. However, despite using this watch for more than an entire week, I’ve still not managed to score. The troubleshooting FAQ for Fossil says you can achieve a score within 24 hours. However, irregular wear can take longer than an entire period of time. I’ve been wearing the watch throughout the day, every day, minus when it’s charged or when it stops working when I’m out and about. It’s still just 60 percent of getting to achieving a Cardio Fitness score. It’s not unusual to be waiting this long to accumulate enough data to calculate the metric, however, it’s more than the norm for the VO2 max.
Its Wellness Edition can track sleep however it’s not a great sleep monitor because of its low battery life. At times, the watch would switch to a time-only setting before I woke up, despite when I had been asleep with at minimum 40 percent. (That’s the minimum that other smartwatches recommend for tracking sleep.) As a result, my sleep data wasn’t reliable due to the fact that the watch stopped sleep tracking at an early. For example in a night where the Apple Watch Ultra and Oura Ring were tracking 7.5 hours of sleeping while the Fossil recorded 4.5 hours. All three devices were 30-40 percent fully charged, however only the Fossil did not make it until the next day. This doesn’t mean that sleeping tracking isn’t possible -but it does mean that you’ll need to be more attentive to battery levels in comparison to other devices.
Patience is an attribute
In the past few years, I’ve instructed Android users to keep an eye out for another Fossil watch. I’m not willing to offer this advice again as the past is a constant reminder. Again, Fossil’s done its best job as to create lemonade from Wear OS’s lemons. However, older devices and a less refined version Wear OS 3 haven’t created one of these Gen 6 watches for success.
If you’re choosing between the Fossil Gen 6 (or the Skagen Falster 6, Michael Kors Gen 6, etc.) as well as Gen 6 Wellness Edition Gen 6 Wellness Edition, I’d recommend this. Fossil is roll-out Wear OS 3.0 to standard Gen 6, but you’ll be able to save time by having it preloaded. If that’s not an issue it’s worth noting that the Wellness Edition has a more stylish design as well as the stainless steel casing is an added benefit. I would definitely recommend this one over that of the Montblanc Summit 3. You’ll save about 1,000 dollars, but it’s smaller and lighter plus the Fossil application that comes with it is slightly superior, too.
However, for the price, you’ll enjoy a more complete experience using The price of $280 for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or the $350 Pixel Watch. Both of them come with an upgraded model Wear OS 3. Wear OS 3, more powerful processors, longer battery performance (though it’s not as good when it comes to Pixel Watch) Pixel Watch), and more robust health features. If you’re willing to shell out an extra $50, you can add wireless connectivity.
I hope that Fossil finally has an level playing field in the Gen 7. The ideal scenario is that it gets the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip. Also, when is the Wear OS3 transition comes close to the end of its journey, maybe there’ll be a more consistent experience for the entire range of Android smartwatches. (Hint hint: Google Assistant for everybody else Perhaps?) It’s true that Fossil has shown many adolescent moments in its Wear OS platform through the decades. It would be great to see that payoff for them as well as to the Android smartwatch ecosystem in general.
