Fossil Launched Gen 6 Smartwatches with Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus chip

Pic Credit: Fossil

Fossil revealed its new Gen 6 smartwatch line-up on Monday, which will be available this fall and will receive Google's new Wear OS 3 in an upgrade in 2022. Despite its original release on an older version of Wear OS, Fossil claims the watch's speedier Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus chip and promised charging speed of zero to 80 percent in 30 minutes.

The new watch will be available in two sizes: 42mm and 44mm, and will have several new features such as continuous heart rate monitoring, a new blood oxygen sensor, and speaker functionality (enabling the user to make and receive tethered calls).

Other notable features include a 1.28-inch touchscreen display, 3 ATM water resistance (which Fossil describes as "swimproof"), 8GB of storage space, and 1GB of RAM.

The watch's battery life, in particular, is a major focus. However, apart from the charging claim, the watch has a number of granular battery modes that range from 24 hours to multiple days with an Extended Battery Mode.

Unfortunately, these watches will ship with the current Wear OS 2 software rather than the new Wear OS 3 that runs on Samsung's most recent Galaxy Watches. Fossil claims it will offer Wear OS 3 upgrades for Gen 6 watches in 2022, though when that will happen is a bit of a mystery. Google has stated that upgrades for Wear OS 2 watches will not be available until "late 2022," and that even then, they will require a hard reset.

There are not that many Wear OS manufacturers left, so Android customers searching for a full-featured watch will have a hard time finding one. Except for Fossil and Mobvoi's TicWatch line, practically all other manufacturers have either abandoned or converted to lightweight, in-house software.

All of these could be beneficial to Fossil. If Fossil's Gen 6 watches can at least match their predecessors in terms of performance and battery life, they could be a viable option for Android users. Google is also bringing some of its upgraded Wear OS apps back to the current platform, which may be beneficial.

The watch line is currently available for preorder in the United States, with prices ranging from $299 to $319 (approximately £220 and AU$410).