Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Version overview: historical past repeats itself

The unique Fossil Gen 6 type of obtained shafted. Whereas Fossil was nonetheless creating the watch, Google and Samsung sprung the information that Put on OS 3 was on the horizon. Fossil apparently discovered similtaneously the remainder of us. Then, Qualcomm introduced a more recent, sooner wearable chip. By the point the Gen 6 debuted, it was working a soon-to-be last-gen chip — and Samsung’s first Put on OS 3 watch, the Galaxy Watch 4, was already out. It wasn’t Fossil’s fault, however the Gen 6 was outdated earlier than it ever hit cabinets. Sadly, it looks like the brand-new $299 Gen 6 Wellness Version, Fossil’s first native Put on OS 3 watch, obtained the quick finish of the stick, too. 

Like the unique Gen 6, the Wellness Version has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 Plus chip. It’s obtained the identical 1.28-inch OLED show, the identical 1GB of RAM, and the identical 8GB of onboard storage. The Wellness Version additionally has the identical sensors. It’s successfully the identical watch, with a barely totally different aesthetic and Put on OS 3 put in out of the field. (Older Gen 6 watches shipped with Put on OS 2 however can now be up to date to Put on OS 3.) On reflection, I’m undecided what I assumed could be totally different this time round. However, having frolicked with all of the accessible Put on OS 3 watches on the market, it looks like there are two tiers of the working system: the Put on OS 3 you get on Samsung and Google watches and the one everybody else is caught with.

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The 44mm Gen 6 Wellness Version is a classy watch. Though it’s barely greater than my 42mm Gen 6, I dig the sleeker general aesthetic, and I choose the extra fashionable tackle the buttons — I had fewer unintentional presses this time round, because of the flatter profile of the pushers. You’ll be able to simply swap out the default 20mm silicone straps, however I wouldn’t be ashamed to put on it as is to a proper occasion. It’s comfy for on a regular basis put on, and whereas it wouldn’t be my first alternative for health monitoring and even within the high 5, the chrome steel case provides a bit of additional sturdiness. Simply don’t take it within the pool, because it’s solely obtained 3ATM of water resistance. That’s tremendous for laundry dishes however isn’t thought-about protected for swimming.

However a snazzier design isn’t sufficient to redeem the Gen 6 lineup as a complete. The large factor I used to be on the lookout for with the Wellness Version was a greater general expertise. I obtained that, however I ended up with some sudden annoyances, too.

Put on OS 3 on the Gen 6 is healthier than Put on OS 2, however not essentially sooner. Scrolling by way of menus is zippy, and notifications pop up rapidly. However typically, there’s a slight pause if you launch apps, or a display screen freezes for a scorching second earlier than transferring alongside. After I tried to obtain Strava by way of the on-wrist Play Retailer, it crashed. A number of instances. And when the search did “work,” Strava by no means truly appeared as a downloadable app. I ended up having to push it from the net model of the Play Retailer, but it surely took some time earlier than it put in. That is so bizarre since I’ve positively downloaded Strava from the on-wrist Play Retailer onto each different Put on OS 3 watch I’ve examined. It wasn’t an enormous concern as a result of Adidas Working got here preloaded, and you may as well observe exercises by way of the native Wellness app. However nonetheless. 

None of that made the Wellness Version unusable. It was simply odd. However apart from occasional stutters, Put on OS 3 was nonetheless an enchancment. It was so good to have extra third-party apps that truly work. You would use Spotify on Put on OS 2, but it surely wasn’t an awesome expertise. It’s a lot improved in Put on OS 3 and eventually helps offline playlists. You too can use YouTube Music, SoundCloud, or Deezer. (Does anybody use Deezer?)

Nonetheless, it’s not higher than Put on OS 3 on the Pixel Watch or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 lineups. I think a few of my efficiency points have been because of the 4100 Plus chip, which launched in 2020 however didn’t actually seem in lots of watches till the top of 2021. By then, Samsung had already moved on to a next-gen chip for its Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 lineups. The Pixel Watch makes use of a last-gen Samsung chip, but it surely’s been bumped as much as 2GB of RAM to make up for it. I’ve a sense a future Fossil Watch working the Snapdragon W5 Plus chip will carry out higher, however that’s not an possibility simply but.

However Put on OS 3 itself has extra options on Google and Samsung watches. These watches have Google Assistant. The Gen 6 Wellness Version doesn’t. It’s unclear if that’s coming someday sooner or later, however for now, you’ll should make do with Amazon Alexa. (It’s tremendous.) 

Alexa is healthier than nothing, however a smartwatch working Google software program must have Google Assistant. For well being and health monitoring, Google and Samsung’s Put on OS watches have sturdy native apps, too. Fossil has the Wellness app, however whereas it’s aesthetically pleasing, it’s not built-in properly into the general Put on OS 3 expertise. The Pixel Watch has a Fitbit integration, which, although imperfect, is extra polished than Fossil’s Wellness app. It’s straightforward to see a each day Fitbit dashboard in your Tiles as properly. Samsung’s watches have Samsung Well being, which additionally integrates extra easily throughout the One Watch UI pores and skin Samsung runs over Put on OS 3. Even the outdated Google Match Tiles might at the least offer you a fast visible of how far alongside you have been in your each day objectives. 

That brings me to Fossil’s new companion app. Put on OS 3 has carried out away with the outdated Put on OS app, which means corporations should drum up their very own companion apps. Montblanc did it with the Summit 3, and Fossil’s carried out it right here, too. This places non-Google and non-Samsung Put on OS watches at a drawback. Google has the Pixel Watch app, whereas Samsung has the Galaxy Wearable app. For well being, they depend on the Fitbit and Samsung Well being apps. It’s not elegant to depend on a number of apps, however settings are straightforward to edit, and there are ample methods to view your each day and historic well being knowledge.

No offense to Fossil, however its app is skeletal. It seems to be fairly, and it’s greater than enough at swapping watchfaces and customizing Tiles. However viewing historic well being knowledge is, to place it properly, unintuitive, and the minimalist knowledge isn’t that helpful. Then once more, at the least you’ll be able to view well being knowledge within the Fossil app at launch. You couldn’t with the Montblanc app once I examined, and I don’t have it anymore to examine. 

The one “edge” Fossil’s obtained over Google and Samsung is that its model of Put on OS 3 is iOS appropriate. However that is extra of a philosophical win for individuals who both double-wield Android and iOS telephones or like to change between the 2 platforms. iOS loyalists are more likely to go for an Apple Watch or perhaps a Garmin in the event that they’re actually into health.

Through the years, Fossil has tried to take the sting out of the not-so-great battery life on its watches. It was one of many first so as to add quick charging and a number of battery-saving modes. However it’s virtually 2023, and a smartwatch has obtained to final you thru the workday. This one hardly ever did.

With the always-on show enabled, I used to be fortunate to make it to bedtime earlier than the watch mechanically switched to one in every of its battery-saving modes. Sooner or later, I had AOD on and took the watch off the charger at 9AM with 100%. By 11:30AM, it was all the way down to 69 %. To date, all I’d carried out was sit at my desk and hop on the bus to go to work. I obtained extra mileage if I turned AOD off, however going for a 30-minute GPS run nonetheless meant I needed to high off the battery earlier than mattress if I wished to trace sleep.

On the very least, Fossil’s made it in order that the watches cost tremendous quick. You’ll be able to rise up to 80 % in half-hour. 

I attempted futzing round with some settings to see if I might stretch battery life additional, however that led me to a different one of many Wellness Version’s quirks. It will seemingly reset my settings once I caught it on the charger. Not each time, however usually sufficient to gaslight me. For instance, I all the time flip off sounds on smartwatches. My marriage depends upon it. My partner hates all types of digital dings, beeps, and bloops, however they particularly hate Fossil watch alerts. And but, the sounds saved turning again on. I really don’t have any rationalization for it, and I hope it’s one thing Fossil fixes in future updates.

The Gen 6 Wellness Version will not be notably good at wellness. Take SpO2, or blood oxygen, monitoring. As with the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watches, you’ll be able to take SpO2 spot checks with the Wellness Version. It’s a comparatively new addition to Fossil watches, which I used to be completely happy to see because it was an indication that Fossil was making headway so far as superior well being monitoring goes.

Too dangerous that the primary time I attempted it, the watch mentioned my SpO2 ranges have been at 83 %. For context, 95 to 100% is taken into account commonplace, whereas something under 90 % is purpose to hunt medical care. After all, I attempted to see if this was a one-off, however the watch then failed to finish a number of subsequent readings. It saved telling me to put on my watch increased on the wrist and to regulate the strap, however neither appeared to make a distinction. (I additionally couldn’t have worn it any tighter — it was on the smallest attainable strap gap.) I rebooted the watch, and that appeared to do the trick, however I nonetheless obtained extra errors than I normally do with smartwatch SpO2 readings.

The opposite metric I’d been trying ahead to was Cardio Health, or VO2 max. However though I’ve been carrying this look ahead to over every week, I’ve but to get a rating. Fossil’s troubleshooting FAQ says that you must be capable to get a rating in about 24 hours however that intermittent put on may imply taking on every week. I’ve been carrying this watch all day, on daily basis, aside from when it’s on the charger or when it dies whereas I’m out and about. I’m nonetheless solely 60 % of the way in which to a Cardio Health rating. It’s not unparalleled to attend that lengthy to gather sufficient knowledge for a metric, however it’s longer than common for VO2 max. 

The Wellness Version can observe sleep, but it surely’s not an excellent sleep tracker due to its poor battery life. A number of instances, the watch had converted to time-only mode earlier than I wakened, though I’d gone to mattress with at the least 40 %. (That’s the minimal most different smartwatches counsel for sleep monitoring.) The consequence was that my sleep knowledge was unreliable as a result of the watch minimize sleep monitoring early. As an illustration, on an evening that my Apple Watch Extremely and Oura Ring tracked 7.5 hours of sleep, the Fossil tracked 4.5 hours. All three gadgets have been round 30–40 % charged, however solely the Fossil did not make it to the subsequent morning. It doesn’t imply sleep monitoring is unimaginable — it simply means you’ve obtained to be way more aware of battery ranges than you’ll with different gadgets. 

Then again, the Wellness Version was means higher at monitoring my outside runs than different current Fossil watches I’ve used.

Right here’s how GPS checks are likely to go together with Fossil watches. I strap it on, begin up the native health monitoring app, do my little run, and facepalm once I load up the recorded map. Normally, there’s a stretch the place the GPS says I’m working within the East River or zigzagging by way of partitions like Kitty Pryde. Not this time. I went on two 30-minute runs, which I recorded on my cellphone, the Gen 6 Wellness Version, the Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Photo voltaic, and the Apple Watch Extremely. The GPS maps corresponded throughout all 4 platforms, as did coronary heart fee, tempo, and distance knowledge. That’s a giant enchancment over the Fossil Gen 5 lineup. In any other case, coronary heart fee, tempo, and distance knowledge have been additionally on par throughout all 4 gadgets. 

I don’t anticipate a complete lot from Fossil watches on the well being and health entrance. That is nonetheless a style smartwatch, even whether it is referred to as the Wellness Version. So though my outcomes right here have been extremely blended, I wouldn’t say that’s a significant con. So long as you’re conscious that these options aren’t the primary focus, you’ll be able to nonetheless use this look ahead to informal well being and exercise monitoring.

For the previous couple of years, I’ve advised Android customers to attend for the subsequent Fossil watch. I’m loath to offer that recommendation once more, however historical past appears to maintain repeating itself. As soon as once more, Fossil’s carried out the perfect job it may to make lemonade out of Put on OS’s lemons. However older {hardware} and a less-finished model of Put on OS 3 hasn’t arrange any of the Gen 6 watches for achievement. 

That mentioned, for those who’re choosing between a Fossil Gen 6 (or the Skagen Falster 6, Michael Kors Gen 6, and so forth.) and the Gen 6 Wellness Version, I’d go together with this. Fossil has began rolling out Put on OS 3 to the vanilla Gen 6, however you’ll save time if it’s preloaded. Even when that’s not a priority, the Wellness Version has a extra elegant design, and the chrome steel case is a perk. I’d additionally positively decide this over the Montblanc Summit 3. Not solely will you save roughly $1,000, but it surely’s additionally a much less cumbersome watch, and the Fossil companion app is marginally higher, too.

However for the value, you’re going to get a fuller expertise with the $280 Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or the $350 Pixel Watch. Each these watches have a extra polished model of Put on OS 3, sooner processors, higher battery life (although it’s an in depth name with the Pixel Watch), and extra sturdy well being options. If you happen to’re keen to pay $50 further, you may as well get mobile connectivity. 

Hopefully, Fossil lastly will get a extra even enjoying subject with the Gen 7. Ideally, it’d get the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, and as soon as the Put on OS 3 transition nears completion, maybe there’ll be a extra uniform expertise throughout all Android smartwatches. (Trace trace, Google Assistant for everyone else, maybe?) Lord is aware of Fossil has had a whole lot of endurance with the Put on OS platform over time. It’d be good to see that repay — for them and the Android smartwatch ecosystem as a complete.