Now, normally you wouldn’t need all this extra hype from Fossil on something like the Gen 6 smartwatch. That’s because Fossil’s smartwatches running on Wear OS have consistently been some of the best ones on the market for years. Not the other brands under the Fossil Group, like Puma, DIESEL, Michael Kors and others, but the Fossil-branded watches. Watches from those other brands have been fine, but Fossil’s own have often been the favorite for the platform. Such as the Gen 5 and Gen 5E. But, this year is different. And there are two major reasons why. Google and Samsung.
The Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch won’t be running Wear OS 3
According to Fossil’s teaser image that it sent out to people via email, the Gen 6 will be “way faster” and offer “way more.” Whether that means features or performance is unclear right now. Why all the hype surrounding Fossil’s Gen 5 follow-up? As noted above the big reason is because of Google and Samsung. The two announced earlier this year that they had worked together to create Wear OS 3. The unified wearables platform that will give Wear OS better battery life and better performance. Fossil will eventually launch watches running this software. So will Fitbit. But, not for some time. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, which the company has teased a reveal for during Unpacked this week, is going to be the first smartwatch running it. And Google has already confirmed that part of its partnership with Samsung means timed exclusivity rights on using it. The timed delay on the rollout is also because of the amount of changes coming to the platform. That puts other Wear OS brands in a bit of a pickle. That is, unless they can guarantee customers that the watches will eventually be updated to Wear OS 3. Otherwise, those watches will be stuck on the old software. And that will likely seem less appealing. Fossil is trying to sidestep any of that uneasiness and assure consumers that the Gen 6 is going to be worth it.
