Fossil was once a key player in the Wear OS smartwatch category, offering a plethora of watches under its umbrella. But that was back in the Wear OS and Wear OS 2 era. TheFossil Gen 6, which launched in September 2021, was the last significant addition to the company’s stable. Since then, Fossil has been relatively quiet despite Android smartwatches growing in popularity thanks to the introduction of Wear OS 3. It turns out the company might be giving up on its Wear OS smartwatch lineup entirely.
MultipleReddit usershave purportedly spoken to Fossil retail employees, who claim the company’s Gen 7 Wear OS smartwatches won’t see the light of the day. Another user claims Fossil is waiting for Qualcomm to launch a new Wear OS chipset. There have not been any rumors of Qualcomm working on a new Wear OS platform, so there’s little to back this rumor.
None of the other claims can be verified, especially since Fossil has not issued any statement regarding its future Wear OS plans. But it does appear that Fossil has given up on its Wear OS ambitions.
As9to5Googlereports, the company is hosting a fire sale of its last smartwatch — theFossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition— dropping its price by over 50%, from $299 to $129. It has also stopped selling its other Gen 6 watches, including the Skagen Falster Gen 6. Some variants are on sale, but their availability has dwindled.
Despite being a major player in the Wear OS segment once, Fossil has yet to launch a smartwatch runningWear OS 4. After a long delay, it rolled out theWear OS 3.5 update for its Gen 6 wearables in November 2023. However, that firmware was plagued with bugs, with users complaining about poor battery life and performance issues.
The company did roll out a minor update to address the reported problems, but there’s still room for improvement. Fossil has also not clarified whether it will update its existing Gen 6 wearables to Wear OS 4. If the fashion brand has indeed given up on its Android smartwatch lineup, the latest Wear OS release is unlikely to be available for its Gen 6 watches.
Since the launch of Wear OS 3, Google has deepened its partnership with Samsung, giving the latter exclusive access to new releases of the platform for a few months. The company itself released its first smartwatch in 2022, with the 2023Pixel Watch 2packing all the right upgrades to deliver an even better experience.
Barring Samsung and Google, TicWatch is the other major player in the Wear OS category. And while the company has launched some impressive wearables, they miss out on Google Assistant, putting it at a disadvantage against offerings from Samsung and Google. And it just got around toreleasing Wear OS 3 for its wearables, with there being no mention of when Wear OS 4 will arrive.
