# Fossil Gen 6 is out and reviews are in



## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Here link. See it. Make out is it good for yourselves.
Let discuss!
Hate when people drop one liner and than discuss...

From what i see it's mostly positive on old WearOS.

New one is still not debuted on Fossil.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

To add few things.
Hardware is new. New SOC 4100 and new heart rate sensor. Screen is same. Design is mostly same.
Since OS is old WearOS 2 you won't get any significant changes from Gen5 yet.
No extended battery life. Same 1 day affair.
I will change with arrival of WearOS3 though.
Now...
Constant HR/GPS drain battery significantly as been seen on Suunto7 where introduction of sleep tracking and all day HR tracking wiped 30% of battery life.

GPS accuracy is so so. 

My guess it's software thing. And i hope it's software thing.... Because errors can be as big as 20%+.

Fitness tracking will require 3d party app. Goolge so far is very basic.
And Fossil in essence is pure Google WearOS. Unlike Samsung.

Now for conclusion. Would i prefer it to Samsung GW4? No. Samsung has it's issues but does it better than Fossil especially if you own Samsung phone.
Would i prefer it to Garmin as fitness tracking companion.... No No No!!!!
Would i choose it if i happy camper at Google? Yes. 
Does it hold candles to Apple Watch? No.
Is it better than Gen5? Yes and it's nice all around smartwatch which will take some time and searching for right apps to become useful.


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## kramer5150 (Nov 15, 2007)

8 days and no comments / interest says more than anything. In a nutshell... great hardware, short battery life unless you dial back features, questionable software / OS and support. IE better choices elsewhere.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

kramer5150 said:


> 8 days and no comments / interest says more than anything. In a nutshell... great hardware, short battery life unless you dial back features, questionable software / OS and support. IE better choices elsewhere.


It will get better with WearOS3.

Most o smartwatches here don't generate here any buzz.
Even giants like Apple Watch 7.

As i said in my summary it's all cool but there are better options. Samsung.

The moment Fossil goes on sale it will become more attractive. Still better option than Casio WearOS at 700$.

Main question is always "why you buy it"? "What you think you will get".

For Fossil Gen6 so far it is smart features like answering phone, using assistant etc. Which frankly limits their appeal to something like 50% or so people who buy smartwatches which is for fitness and other platforms are far more solid in fitness department.
I am sure they will find their customers in non WIS crowd and after Apple watch and Samsung these been most popular watches at least among male customers.

What can be said about them is at least if you do buy it, you *will get* new WearOS with all goodies and double battery life. Which can't be said so far about any other brand apart Mvobi. And there are 10s if not 100 of them out there. Including 5-6K$ Hublots and Luis Vutuions.

I put these news here to keep subforum alive and informed. Don't really expect much of discussion going on and frankly hope some trolling individuals won't appear and start claiming these are not watches. Also, i am looking for new smartwatch and results of this search are here. So far not convinced it worth pulling trigger now and Samsung does not provide in Canada in health tracking department. Until they do some core differentiators of it are not a viable argument.

That about it.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Another point.
When Casio put carrot of G-Shock smartwatch for a public reach and later started to sell it.... it generated huge discussions on G-Shock sub forum.

At least 3 people bought it and you know, several months into future there are only crickets and people who bought it don't post it on What You Wear Today threads .
Nothing. That kind of reaction general smartwatches get here.


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## AnonPi (Aug 19, 2020)

Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch review: better luck next time


Wear OS 2 is old, so that “Fossil” branding is unfortunate.




www.theverge.com


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

AnonPi said:


> Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch review: better luck next time
> 
> 
> Wear OS 2 is old, so that “Fossil” branding is unfortunate.
> ...


Fossil as well anyone else on Snapdragon 4100 will get WearOS 3 next year. So far there is only Mvobi among these else. 
It been known since Google announced limitations for new OS some time ago.

I created new thread about it and not much changed since then. 

Also, Samsung put so much effort into developing WearOS 3 i think they got some kind of exclusivity head start.
Considering there is nothing new in OS on Gen5 and current version shipped with Gen 6 you should expect 0 differences in most cases (it does gets oxygen levels). 

Most things will happen next year anyway. Before that reviewing it more or less futile. WearOS 2 comes with all things Google did no shined in. So putting it on new hardware will just outline how your smartwatch experience is influenced by software. 

All you will get *now* is faster response time and some growing pain of unpolished drivers. 

Google did another bad number on manufactures who use their OS in smartwatches. 

I would expect some kind of antitrust lawsuit.


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## BarracksSi (Feb 13, 2013)

Rocket1991 said:


> The moment Fossil goes on sale it will become more attractive.


This is a terribly lame justification for buying anything.

Six months into ownership, the owner would've forgotten what they spent the savings on, but they'll still wish the watch worked better.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

BarracksSi said:


> This is a terribly lame justification for buying anything.
> 
> Six months into ownership, the owner would've forgotten what they spent the savings on, but they'll still wish the watch worked better.


What will be your suggestion for a method to increase competitiveness of Fossil Gen6 in it's current form?
Knowing it won't get WearOS 3 for about a year and it cost as much as Galaxy Watch 4.


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## BarracksSi (Feb 13, 2013)

Rocket1991 said:


> What will be your suggestion for a method to increase competitiveness of Fossil Gen6 in it's current form?
> Knowing it won't get WearOS 3 for about a year and it cost as much as Galaxy Watch 4.


How about not shipping it with EOL software in the first place?

It’s like they’re pushing it out the door knowing it has problems they can’t fix.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

BarracksSi said:


> How about not shipping it with EOL software in the first place?
> 
> It’s like they’re pushing it out the door knowing it has problems they can’t fix.


That problem... they can't deal with right now. Google-Samsung very likely have some kind of exclusivity thing. It would of been really strange if Samsung spent money and resources codeveloping platform and gave it away for free to 10s of competitors. Just as they start to compete in WearOS smartwatch segment. Whole different story if it's *the only smartwatch with new WearOS 3*....

It was March-June 2022 WearOS 3 on Gen6 when it was discussed in spring 2021. Now end of 2022 circulating in projections.

Not going to speculate on reasons. But Fossil probably took path of least resistance and least losses. Mvobi was example of getting new hardware out and getting attention and sales due to it. You right they pushed it out without any software part been fixed but at least they the only major smartwatch manufacturer on WearOS (they, de facto prior to Samsung were the only major one) with watches on New 4100+ platform.

And it's not only Fossil. It's Skagen, Michael Cors, Diesel, Emporio Armani..... almost whole watch department in department store is Fossil. All smartwatches from these are Fossil. So pushing new platform, testing it, getting it on the wrists is much bigger deal than just one Gen6. It's like when big car company like VW gets new engine out it will be heart of 10s of other car models. But it starts with 1.

Even Citizen used Fossil to make their smartwatch. So new hardware is for sure big deal for sales of all these *Fashion* *brand* smart watches.

Fun fact.
Fossil been to the game among first.

This one is 2003


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## BarracksSi (Feb 13, 2013)

Rocket1991 said:


> Fun fact.
> Fossil been to the game among first.


“First” could’ve become “best” if they had decided to learn anything along the way.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)




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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Fossil Gen6 got Alexa virtual assistant on board.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Some more recent reviews of Fossil Gen 6. mention how awful first day or two of using watch are. it's slow, outright buggy and it changes for better after that. Not that better but you can live with it.

So if anyone interested be patient.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Fossil Gen 6 getting WearOS3 starting October 17.
Along with all Fossil group siblings based on same platform.
It almost 14 months since it was announced and more or less same time from commercial availability of WearOS3.
Surprisingly Google took as long to put their own WearOS 3(OK they did 3.5) watch. 

Not sure how it relevant but i wanted to bump Gen6 review post in case someone will be interested.
The moment Gen6 on new platform reviews will be in, i will post it here.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Spotted this today:








Google Fit is missing


Google Assistant is also MIA if you upgrade your Gen 6.




www.theverge.com


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

peagreen said:


> Spotted this today:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I did post on WearOS 3 related policy by google and it's a female dog one.
Google provides ton of restrictions and lowers bar of what they provide with the system even lower.
So, it's on manufacturer to solve many issues related to core functionality of the watch. 
Which is fine in case of Samsung but requires a lot of efforts and significantly affecting quality of experience in many other cases. 

The fact of 14 months delay in release of system to anyone else is by itself tells a lot about what Google think about all small and big manufacturers who kept WearOS on the market. 

Missing google assistant is indeed strange.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

peagreen said:


> Spotted this today:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There is actually another issue here. Google is subject to several antitrust investigations and removal of google assistant as default and leaving it as option is cover your behind approach.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Rocket1991 said:


> There is actually another issue here. Google is subject to several antitrust investigations and removal of google assistant as default and leaving it as option is cover your behind approach.


That sounds reminiscent of the old days when Microsoft was required to leave Internet Exploder out of Windows installations, or some such nonsense, so that customers were free to pick their personal favourite browser.


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