Fossil Gen 6 – Chic Wear OS Smartwatch in the Test

Fossil Gen 6 Specifications:

• Name: Fossil Gen 6
• Operating system: Wear OS
• 1.28 ″ AMOLED display with 416 x 416 pixels, 326 ppi
• Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus
• 1 GB RAM, 8 GB internal storage
• 300 mAh battery, 30 min to 80%
• Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS, NFC SE, WLAN
• Sensors: accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light sensor, compass, gyroscope, infrared radiation radiating away from the body, PPG heart rate, SPO2
• Waterproof to 3 ATM
• Bracelet men 22 mm, women 18 mm
• Stainless steel case – men: 44 mm, women 42 mm

Fossil Gen 6 – scope of delivery and design:

The Fossil Gen 6 is packaged like most WearOS watches, only here in Fossil’s own design. There is also a suitable charging cable next to the clock.

We have one of the women’s versions of the Fossil Gen 6. These differ a little in terms of design, case size (44/42 mm) and bracelet width (22/18 mm). It comes in a classic round design and not only looks high quality, but is also really high quality. It is made entirely of stainless steel, like most smartwatches in this price segment. You don’t have to pay extra here, as is common with Apple, for example. The housing color is different depending on the variant. Below you will find the basic models shown again. The loudspeaker is on the left and the usual sensors for heart rate measurement can be found on the back of the watch. However, the watch does not have an EKG function. Otherwise, the case is water-resistant up to 3 ATM. Swimming (fresh water) should still be feasible, but I wouldn’t risk diving.

Depending on which variant of the Fossil Gen 6 you have ordered, you will also get different tapes, whereby you can also combine them yourself when ordering. The price only increases by 30 euros if you choose a metal bracelet. You have the choice between metal, leather and silicone straps. Below are the basic versions.

Basically you can exchange the straps of the Fossil Gen 6 very easily, because practically every 22 mm strap would fit here. Since there are now many third-party tapes and other Fossil Group brands such as Skagen also offer options, the selection is very large. When buying, however, you should choose what you want directly, because some ribbons don’t seem to be able to be ordered individually at Fossil itself. It’s even less of a problem with men’s bands, but the 18mm women’s watches seem to have a little less choice. For example, I couldn’t find the metal band individually. But it could just be due to current availability.

On the right side the Fossil Gen 6 has three buttons. The top and bottom buttons can be assigned by yourself, while the crown in the middle can be used to navigate through the menus if you don’t want to use the touchscreen, which is useful if you want to avoid fingerprints. Pressing the crown takes you either to the home screen or to the app menu.

Fossil Gen 6 – Display:

On the front of the Fossil Gen 6 there is a 1.28 inch display with a resolution of 416 x 416 pixels. Anyone who has already had the Fossil Gen 5 will not notice a difference here at first glance. It is an AMOLED display with a beautiful display and very good black values. The brightness is good enough to be able to see the screen content properly even in sunlight. With the AMOLED display, there is also an always-on functionality. Here, too, the screen is always easy to read, provided that the automatic brightness has been activated. We already had that with the Gen 5, but here the whole thing is even brighter and the always-on display allows more colors to be displayed.

The display can be switched off in the status menu, which can be reached by swiping downwards, until it is activated again by pressing a button. In general, this is when you have the smartphone in front of you, you don’t need the watch at the moment, sleep or sit in the cinema. This is how you use the watch correctly and save on battery consumption, since a permanently switched on Always On Display or waking up when moving your arm naturally shortens the battery life. If you are wondering that the display is sometimes not centered on the Always On Display: This is due to the fact that the position changes slightly to prevent burn-in on the display. Overall, it’s a nice display and information is presented well here.

Fossil Gen 6 – System and Functionality:

Like almost all Wear OS smartwatches, the Fossil Gen 6 is of course limited in its functionality by the system itself. The Fossil Gen 6 makes full use of all the functions that Wear OS offers. Accordingly, you have current standard tracking features for heart rate, steps, covered distance / distance (via GPS, even without a smartphone) etc. With the Gen 5, I criticized the lack of sleep tracking. Now it’s there because Wear OS now also supports it. However, Fossil itself cannot do anything about that.

Regardless of whether you want to control your smart home with the Google Assistant or various apps, make phone calls, read notifications, answer messages, listen to music while running, pay with Google Pay, etc. Everything that other Wear OS smartwatches can do, only partially smoother than with many others due to the more up-to-date hardware and some accessories, such as the speaker, which not every smartwatch has. This is very useful for alarm clocks, notifications and the Google Assistant. Occasionally for phone calls or for various sports exercises.

Visually, the Fossil Gen 6 system will only differ slightly for Wear OS connoisseurs. Fossil usually integrates some of its own design elements such as watch faces and charging animations.

By the way, if you are using iOS, Gen 6 is now fully supported. So you shouldn’t have any disadvantages with notifications etc. I don’t even have it with the Huawei watches, which have their own systems again.

Apart from that, the watches from the Fossil Group, just like the Fossil Gen 6, have recently had a pretty good energy management system, which means that you can actually get through the day longer than usual with the watches. Here you have to note that the battery life is limited by the system and the chip. Watches like the current Huawei Watches, which last two to four weeks, come with their own chipset and system, which is due to better optimization but less functionality. However, when used correctly, I see the Fossil Gen 6 as one of the better WearOS smartwatches when it comes to battery life. The Ticwatch is probably a tad better, but it is also made of plastic, which in turn would be a compromise that you have to make. If you switch off the display when you don’t need it, go into flight mode when you don’t need the connection at the moment or deactivate individual functions such as Bluetooth, NFC, GPS etc., if you never use some of them anyway, you can easily get on with it one week. The biggest complaints come from testers who use power for 2-3 days and therefore have to charge the battery several times. The normal user will not be bothered by his usage behavior. The Apple Watch doesn’t necessarily do better here either.

If you keep everything active, even if you sit in the office for 8 hours and hide it under your sleeve, you will of course only get a maximum of 24 hours or less. With normal active use, you get around 2-3 days. If you use the watch more passively with deactivated functions, a week would certainly be there. That is more than okay. Incidentally, the Fossil Gen 6 charges 80% in 30 minutes. So it’s another 20 minutes faster than the Gen 5. Unfortunately, Qi charging is not possible. The adapter supplied must therefore be used.

Fossil Gen 6 price and availability

The Fossil Gen 6 is already available in stores and costs 299 euros. With metal bracelet 329 euros. Of course, RRP. Market prices can differ again. That’s a normal price for such a smart accessory, especially if you’re looking for something new. You can find the watch on the manufacturer’s website, various online retailers and some technology shops or watch shops. Possibly also in the Fossil Store in your neighborhood.