Fossil is going Wear OS 3 with the new Gen 6 Wellness Edition smartwatch
Wear OS 3 has been around for over a year at this point, but the platform has been positively sluggish to come to hardware. For the longest time, Samsung’sGalaxy Watch 4was your only option, and while that’s now joined by theWatch 5lineup and Google’s recently-launchedPixel Watch, that’s still not a lot of choice. While there is theMontblanc Summit 3, we’ve been very curious to learn when the OS would additional third-party watches. Thankfully, Fossil is stepping into the fray as it announces the Gen 6 Wellness Edition smartwatch — its very first watch shipping with Wear OS 3 — as well as plans to update other Gen 6 devices.
As the name might suggest, the Gen 6 Wellness Edition isn’t all that different from the standard Gen 6, which is already one of thebest smartwatchesyou can get. It has a Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus SoC and 1GB of RAM, as well as 8GB of storage (viaThe Verge).
While the hardware’s nothing new there are two big additions for this fresh edition, with the biggest of them being Wear OS 3. According to Fossil, the UI itself is very similar to what the Pixel Watch has, rather than going full custom skin like Samsung — so if you liked what you were seeing on the Pixel Watch, you’ll probably like this just fine. You’ll be able to enjoy everything except for the Google Assistant, which is currently not available from Fossil.
The second addition is the arrival of a new Wellness app, which gives you SpO2 measurements, cardio estimations using VO2 max, automatic workout detection, and more.
If you already have a Gen 6 smartwatch, you’ll be glad to know that the update will eventually make landfall on all Gen 6 devices belonging to any of Fossil’s brands, includingthe standard Fossil Gen 6, the Skagen Falster Gen 6, and the Michael Kors Gen 6 (viaAndroid Central). Gen 5 and earlier hardware, meanwhile, will stay on their current Wear OS version. That rollout will begin on October 17, the same day the Wellness Edition smartwatch is released.
Just keep in mind that once you update, your watch will be factory reset, and you’ll need to re-pair it with your phone using the Fossil companion app. Keep an eye out for that update coming to your smartwatch in the coming days.
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