Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition evaluate: historical past repeats itself

The authentic Fossil Gen 6 sort of obtained shafted. While Fossil was nonetheless growing the watch, Google and Samsung sprung the information that Wear OS 3 was on the horizon. Fossil apparently came upon at the same time as the rest of us. Then, Qualcomm introduced a newer, faster wearable chip. By the time the Gen 6 debuted, it was operating a soon-to-be last-gen chip — and Samsung’s first Wear 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 It wasn’t Fossil’s fault, however the Gen 6 was outdated earlier than it ever hit cabinets. Unfortunately, it looks as if the brand-new $299 Gen 6 Wellness Edition, Fossil’s first native Wear OS 3 watch, obtained the quick finish of the stick, too. 

Like the unique Gen 6, the Wellness Edition 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 Edition additionally has the identical sensors. It’s successfully the identical watch, with a barely completely different aesthetic and Wear OS 3 put in out of the field. (Older Gen 6 watches shipped with Wear OS 2 however can now be up to date to Wear OS 3.) In retrospect, I’m undecided what I believed can be completely different this time round. But, having hung out with all of the obtainable Wear OS 3 watches on the market, it seems like there are two tiers of the working system: the Wear OS 3 you get on Samsung and Google watches and the one everybody else is caught with.

How we fee and evaluate merchandise

The 44mm Gen 6 Wellness Edition is a trendy watch. Although it’s barely greater than my 42mm Gen 6, I dig the sleeker total aesthetic, and I desire the extra fashionable tackle the buttons — I had fewer unintentional presses this time round, because of the flatter profile of the pushers. You can 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 selection for health monitoring and even within the high 5, the chrome steel case provides a bit of additional sturdiness. Just don’t take it within the pool, because it’s solely obtained 3ATM of water resistance. That’s nice for laundry dishes however isn’t thought-about protected for swimming.

But a snazzier design isn’t sufficient to redeem the Gen 6 lineup as a complete. The huge factor I used to be on the lookout for with the Wellness Edition was a greater total expertise. I obtained that, however I ended up with some surprising annoyances, too.

Wear OS 3 on the Gen 6 is best than Wear OS 2, however not essentially quicker. Scrolling by menus is zippy, and notifications pop up rapidly. But generally, there’s a slight pause while you launch apps, or a display freezes for a sizzling second earlier than shifting alongside. When I attempted to obtain Strava by way of the on-wrist Play Store, it crashed. Multiple occasions. And when the search did “work,” Strava by no means really appeared as a downloadable app. I ended up having to push it from the online model of the Play Store, but it surely took some time earlier than it put in. This is so bizarre since I’ve undoubtedly downloaded Strava from the on-wrist Play Store onto each different Wear OS 3 watch I’ve examined. It wasn’t an enormous concern as a result of Adidas Running got here preloaded, and you may also monitor exercises by way of the native Wellness app. But nonetheless. 

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

However, it’s not higher than Wear OS 3 on the Pixel Watch or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 lineups. I believe a few of my efficiency points had 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 operating the Snapdragon W5 Plus chip will carry out higher, however that’s not an choice simply but.

But Wear OS 3 itself has extra options on Google and Samsung watches. Those watches have Google Assistant. The Gen 6 Wellness Edition doesn’t. It’s unclear if that’s coming someday sooner or later, however for now, you’ll must make do with Amazon Alexa. (It’s nice.) 

Alexa is best than nothing, however a smartwatch operating Google software program should have Google Assistant. For well being and health monitoring, Google and Samsung’s Wear OS watches have sturdy native apps, too. Fossil has the Wellness app, however whereas it’s aesthetically pleasing, it’s not built-in nicely into the general Wear OS 3 expertise. The Pixel Watch has a Fitbit integration, which, although imperfect, is extra polished than Fossil’s Wellness app. It’s simple to see a every day Fitbit dashboard in your Tiles as nicely. Samsung’s watches have Samsung Health, which additionally integrates extra easily throughout the One Watch UI pores and skin Samsung runs over Wear OS 3. Even the previous Google Fit Tiles may not less than provide you with a fast visible of how far alongside you had been in your every day objectives. 

That brings me to Fossil’s new companion app. Wear OS 3 has performed away with the previous Wear OS app, which means firms must drum up their very own companion apps. Montblanc did it with the Summit 3, and Fossil’s performed it right here, too. This places non-Google and non-Samsung Wear OS watches at an obstacle. Google has the Pixel Watch app, whereas Samsung has the Galaxy Wearable app. For well being, they depend on the Fitbit and Samsung Health apps. It’s not elegant to depend on a number of apps, however settings are simple to edit, and there are ample methods to view your every day and historic well being information.

No offense to Fossil, however its app is skeletal. It seems fairly, and it’s greater than sufficient at swapping watchfaces and customizing Tiles. But viewing historic well being information is, to place it properly, unintuitive, and the minimalist information isn’t that helpful. Then once more, not less than you possibly can view well being information 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 Wear OS 3 is iOS appropriate. But 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.

Over 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. But it’s nearly 2023, and a smartwatch has obtained to final you thru the workday. This one not often 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 among its battery-saving modes. One day, I had AOD on and took the watch off the charger at 9AM with one hundred pc. By 11:30AM, it was right down to 69 %. So far, all I’d performed 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.

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

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

The Gen 6 Wellness Edition just isn’t significantly good at wellness. Take SpO2, or blood oxygen, monitoring. As with the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watches, you possibly can take SpO2 spot checks with the Wellness Edition. It’s a comparatively new addition to Fossil watches, which I used to be comfortable to see because it was an indication that Fossil was making headway so far as superior well being monitoring goes.

Too unhealthy that the primary time I attempted it, the watch mentioned my SpO2 ranges had been at 83 %. For context, 95 to one hundred pc is taken into account customary, whereas anything below 90 percent is purpose to hunt medical care. Of course, I attempted to see if this was a one-off, however the watch then failed to finish a number of subsequent readings. It stored telling me to put on my watch larger 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 doable strap gap.) I rebooted the watch, and that appeared to do the trick, however I nonetheless obtained extra errors than I often do with smartwatch SpO2 readings.

The different metric I’d been trying ahead to was Cardio Fitness, or VO2 max. But despite the fact that I’ve been sporting this look ahead to over per week, I’ve but to get a rating. Fossil’s troubleshooting FAQ says that you must be capable of get a rating in about 24 hours however that intermittent put on would possibly imply taking on per week. I’ve been sporting this watch all day, day-after-day, 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 Fitness rating. It’s not extraordinary to attend that lengthy to gather sufficient information for a metric, however it’s longer than common for VO2 max. 

The Wellness Edition can monitor sleep, but it surely’s not a superb sleep tracker due to its poor battery life. Just a few occasions, the watch had converted to time-only mode earlier than I wakened, despite the fact that I’d gone to mattress with not less than 40 %. (That’s the minimal most different smartwatches counsel for sleep monitoring.) The end result was that my sleep information was unreliable as a result of the watch minimize sleep monitoring early. For occasion, on an evening that my Apple Watch Ultra and Oura Ring tracked 7.5 hours of sleep, the Fossil tracked 4.5 hours. All three units had been round 30–40 % charged, however solely the Fossil did not make it to the subsequent morning. It doesn’t imply sleep monitoring is unattainable — it simply means you’ve obtained to be way more aware of battery ranges than you’ll with different units. 

On the opposite hand, the Wellness Edition was means higher at monitoring my out of doors runs than different latest Fossil watches I’ve used.

Here’s how GPS assessments are inclined 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. Usually, there’s a stretch the place the GPS says I’m operating within the East River or zigzagging by partitions like Kitty Pryde. Not this time. I went on two 30-minute runs, which I recorded on my cellphone, the Gen 6 Wellness Edition, the Garmin Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar, and the Apple Watch Ultra. The GPS maps corresponded throughout all 4 platforms, as did coronary heart fee, tempo, and distance information. That’s an enormous enchancment over the Fossil Gen 5 lineup. Otherwise, coronary heart fee, tempo, and distance information had been additionally on par throughout all 4 units. 

I don’t count on a complete lot from Fossil watches on the well being and health entrance. This remains to be a trend smartwatch, even whether it is known as the Wellness Edition. So despite the fact that my outcomes right here had been extremely blended, I wouldn’t say that’s a serious con. As lengthy as you’re conscious that these options aren’t the principle focus, you possibly can nonetheless use this look ahead to informal well being and exercise monitoring.

For the previous couple of years, I’ve informed 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. Once once more, Fossil’s performed one of the best job it will probably to make lemonade out of Wear OS’s lemons. But older {hardware} and a less-finished model of Wear OS 3 hasn’t arrange any of the Gen 6 watches for achievement. 

That mentioned, should you’re choosing between a Fossil Gen 6 (or the Skagen Falster 6, Michael Kors Gen 6, and so on.) and the Gen 6 Wellness Edition, I’d go together with this. Fossil has began rolling out Wear OS 3 to the vanilla Gen 6, however you’ll save time if it’s preloaded. Even if that’s not a priority, the Wellness Edition has a extra elegant design, and the chrome steel case is a perk. I’d additionally undoubtedly 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.

But for the worth, you’re going to get a fuller expertise with the $280 Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or the $350 Pixel Watch. Both these watches have a extra polished model of Wear OS 3, quicker processors, higher battery life (although it’s a detailed name with the Pixel Watch), and extra strong well being options. If you’re keen to pay $50 additional, you may also get mobile connectivity. 

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