Fossil - Gen 6 Smartwatch 44mm Silicone - Black - (2021)

I have owned many smart watches (Apple Watch Gen 1, Samsung Gear S & S2, Withings HR) and I am really impressed with the Fossil Gen 6. It is nice looking, light and comfortable to wear with solid performance, useful default apps and good battery life - making it my new go to. I have learned that every smart watch has compromises and the Fossil Gen 6 is very well balanced. Pros - I love the size and traditional/clean design. I have already gotten a few complements. - Light and comfortable to wear all day. - Fitness monitoring. Continuous heart rate monitoring, steps, and activity tracking (data linked to the Cardiogram app and/or Google Fit), and blood oxygen. - GPS for tracking work outs, apps, location-based alerts, and weather. - Quick charging and very good battery life. It last my entire day (5am to 10pm) with about 40% battery life remaining (using both the continuous heart rate monitoring and always on display). - Vibration pattern for notifications is configurable and works well to subtly receive notifications. - Sharp and bright display - 2 hardware shortcut buttons that can be set to quickly launch any app (mine are set to Google Pay and Timer). - Google Pay works great and is very convenient, especially when set up to launch from one of the hardware buttons. It even works without the phone. - Google assistant built in (I love the default inspirational quotes and quick access to bad jokes!). - Magnetic charger connection is easy to use. - Water-resistant (3 ATM) and is safe to use while swimming (per Fossil). Things to Consider - This watch is compatible with iPhone, but there are some minor issues and drawbacks. You cannot reply to messages - I would not normally try to type out a reply anyway so this is minor, but I do miss using quick replies like I could on an Apple watch. You also have to keep the WearOS app open in the background for the watch to stay connected (using a small amount of additional battery life - around 5% in my experience). I did not have any dropped connections, but I did have to restart the watch once in the past five days to get it to reconnect after being disconnected while charging overnight. I have experienced this same reconnect issue on other brands of watches with the same iPhone. Not perfect, but it has been very reliable overall. - Using the watch to take and make calls has been problematic. You can answer and make calls on the watch, but I experienced random disconnects and audio issues when trying to answer calls from the watch (no sound from watch). This is a minor issue for me, because I prefer to use a dedicated headset or the louder phone speaker over the watch. I have owned several watches with this feature and not used it. - This watch does not have the latest software (WearOS 2 vs 3). This is supposed to be supported in the future but could be a limitation for some (mostly related to new apps like Maps and offline Youtube music). The upgrade would not add much value for me as I am happy with the performance of the watch as is and the pre-installed apps, but it is worth a quick web search to look at the differences and app support. - No USB charger is supplied – only a charging cable. I know this is minor, but it is disappointing given the price of the watch. The charging adapter is also not inductive like some other brands - it relies on magnets to position the watch on a set of contacts. While the charger is easy to use and seems robust, the contacts could wear over time. - The default watch face selection could be better, but I found the included, configurable “Digital Dashboard” watch face very useful if only a bit plain. It displays digital time and data with configurable slots for other data and a background image. I prefer the default black background and I have mine set to display UV index (weather), heart rate (cardiogram), and steps (Google Fit).

Watch arrived smartly boxed. Opened, charged to 100%. The charger magnetically couples to the back of the watch. Charging time is fairly quick. There are 2 tiny pins that serve as connectors. I would think these could be somewhat fragile and should be treated with care. Next, downloaded Google Wear OS. Took a few "do overs" to get app to pair with watch. Once that was accomplished, started in on customizing settings and watch faces. The 416 X 416, 44MM AMOLED display is awesome - sharp, bright, colorful and excellent contrast. The processor is a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Wear 4100. Along with 1Gb ram and, 8GB Storage the watch has a snappy performance and plenty of storage for additional apps. For sensors, it has accelerometer, altimeter, ambient light, compass, gyroscope, heart Rate, SPO2, along with a number of exercise metrics. Keep in mind, this is not a medical device, so readings may be inaccurate. I found it measured a few "steps" while sitting down.... Notifications include apps, text messages, receive and make calls, sync calendar and get reminders, etc. For connectivity, there is blue tooth, wi-fi, NFC. Has built in speaker, mic, and vibrate function. The band is a 22mm quick connect, and easily interchangeable. With all the excellent capabilities of the watch, why the lower rating you may ask.... There are 2 things I feel detract from a 5 star rating. One, Wear OS is a bit dated, and should be upgraded to have a better user interface. And next - and most importantly - I find it disappointing that such an excellent watch has such a mediocre battery life. It looks like this will need to be charged daily. This certainly makes the sleep tracking difficult or impossible due to battery life. I would sum up with this is an excellent watch, if you can work with Wear OS, and deal with daily charging....

I was anxious to try the new Fossil Gen 6 because I reviewed the Gen 5E and well, it had its issues. The first watch I was sent was defective and the second one, while working nominally, was nice but it was a little underwhelming. Battery life needed work, it was on slow side performance wise and wasn’t really that comfortable to wear for long periods of time. I ended up going back to my cheap little fitness band for daily wear and only put on my 5E when I was going out and needed something with apps and a little more smarts. It was nice enough, but not something I always wanted on my wrist. The Gen 6 changed my perspective. Firstly, the performance is way more fluid thanks to the new processor. Swiping between screens fells silky smooth, like you’d expect from a much more expensive watch. The additional controls like the two assignable buttons and the twisting crown make it much easier to navigate through lists, prompting me to wonder how I could ever buy another watch that didn’t have one. And the battery life is an order of magnitude better than any smart watch I’ve owned. This is further improved by the fast charging and a new charging base that has additional contacts for a more positive connection. (They still do not provide the charging plug though!) And that’s important because I’ll be wearing this one much more because it’s super comfortable, which surprised me because it’s about the same size and weight as the 5E. But somehow it feels way more comfortable on my wrist; I can even sleep with it on. Sleep tracking is an important feature for me, but my previous smartwatches (including the 5E) got in the way of my sleep. I’d ‘feel’ the watch and constantly adjust the band or have it alert me in the middle of the night. The Gen 6 ‘disappears’ on your wrist and the Do Not Disturb setting works well – better than the 5E or my old Moto 360. I really liked the additional Pulse Oxygen sensor; it’s fast and can be set to run in the background and in concert with the sleep tracker can help you understand why you may be waking in the middle of the night (my Dad used to have sleep apnea, so I keep an eye on my sleep) and with the current pandemic it’s a metric many have become more aware of. I also was impressed with the default watch face. This is one of the first things I usually change on a watch but the one that came as default with the Gen 6 was truly useful with all the data I want either on the face or a single touch away. And though it only has limited customization options, I can’t think of anything I’d want to change on it. This is not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Onboarding the new watch, while MUCH better than the 5E, still had some oddness to it and it took me a bit of searching and adding accounts to get my watch to connect to my Google Fit account and display data correctly. Also, while I like the Do Not Disturb feature, there’s no way to schedule it for a time range – or at least I couldn’t find it in the time I had to submit this review. It may be there, but like a couple of things in the watch, it seems to be buried in the menu system. Also, in this age it should have wireless Qi charging – I mean it’s not even an expensive or space consuming option to add it. In the end though, this is the first smart watch that I can see myself using as a daily driver as opposed to using a fitness tracker most of the time and a watch on ‘special occasions. Fossil has put a LOT of work into improving the Gen 6 and it shows. Best of all, this watch will get the WearOS 3 update in a couple of months and that could promote this watch from great to epic. At the time of shipping, it’s still running WearOS 2 so I’ll have to take that on faith. But the improvements that Fossil has shown in the Gen 6 have restored that faith, and I’d recommend it highly.

The Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch (Model FTW4061V) improves on the prior Gen 5 model with a significantly superior chipset. The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ (Plus) chipset is at the core of the new Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches. The Wear 4100 and 4100+ chipsets are a vast improvement over the Gen 5s Wear 3100 chipset. The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ also has a major benefit over the standard Wear 4100 chip with an always-on QCC1110 co-processor. The co-processor supports the low-power, always-on functionality for the display and the sensors. It should help with improving battery life, as well. The Fossil Gen 6 is equipped with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The Fossil Gen 6 has a nicely fabricated 44mm diameter black stainless steel watchcase. The case is approximately 10mm thick, or slightly less than ½”. There are three large function pushbuttons on the side of the case. The center Home Button rotates to facilitate quickly and easily scrolling through menus and notifications. The two other pushbuttons are configurable, but the top button defaults to the Wellness app and the bottom button defaults to Google Pay. The back of the watch, which appears to be thermoplastic, houses the health sensors. This model has a soft 22mm black silicone watchband, with a black stainless steel buckle. The watchband is easily replaceable. The Fossil Gen 6 weighs only 72.6 grams (2.6 ounces). The display is a 1.28” (32.5mm), always-on AMOLED touchscreen, with 416x416 pixel resolution and 326 ppi. The display is smaller than that which the 44mm (1.73”) case profile can actually accommodate. Resultantly there is a rather wide bezel surrounding the round display panel. It appears that a 1.4” (35.6mm) display would be better suited to the large diameter case, and the larger screen would enhance viewing as well, particularly since some of the text/fonts on some watch faces, menus and notifications is miniscule. The Fossil Gen 6 display screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. This important attribute is inexplicably not listed on the website or in marketing materials. The Fossil Gen 6 does not claim to meet MIL-STD-810g (drop testing) or IP68 (Ingress Protection for dust, dirt, sand and liquid) as other smartwatches in this price range do. Fossil does claim that the Gen 6 is “Water Resistant to 3 ATM”. Three atmospheres is equivalent to 101.69’ of water. There is no supporting information to validate that claim. The Fossil Gen 6 sensors are comprised of Accelerometer, Altimeter, Ambient Light, Compass, Gyroscope, Off-body IR, PPG Heart Rate and SpO2. The notable absence is an ECG sensor that some other smartwatches have. An electrocardiogram sensor (ECG/EKG) is possibly the most valuable function that a health and fitness smartwatch can have. It can potentially save your life by detecting the life threatening cardiac electrical abnormality atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is an irregular heartbeat condition. The lack of ECG monitoring in the Gen 6 is disappointing for a new generation smartwatch which is specifically intended for health and fitness monitoring. The Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor is comprised of multiple LEDs which measure volumetric changes in peripheral blood flow near the surface of the skin and measures and reports Heart Rate. The SpO2 sensor measures blood oxygen saturation. The imbedded sensors provide data for health and activity monitoring including tracking steps, sleep, heart rate and oxygen saturation. GPS functionality augments exercise activity monitoring by generating distance travelled data. The Fossil Gen 6 currently runs Google Wear OS, Version 2. According to Fossil, Wear OS 3 will be made available to the Gen 6 sometime in 2022. Wear OS 3 is already available on another company’s smartwatch. Wear OS 2 is compatible with both Android and iOS, but there is apparently some uncertainty about Wear OS 3 remaining compatible with iOS. Opting-in for Wear OS 3 will involve a factory reset of the watch requiring all user settings and preferences to be recreated. There are numerous apps preloaded on the Gen 6, and of course there is a panoply of apps available from the Google Play Store. There are seventeen (17) watch faces available, plus the Facer app preloaded on the Gen 6, and many more can be downloaded. With both a microphone and speaker imbedded in the watch, the Fossil Gen 6 supports placing and receiving phone calls, as well as voice interaction with Google Assistant. The watch menus also indicate that Alexa support will be forthcoming in the future, but no time frame or target date information is provided by Fossil. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz only), Bluetooth 5.0 LE (Low Energy), and NFC for Google Pay. The Fossil Gen 6 is equipped with a magnetic puck charger with two pairs of pin type contacts, which mate with concentric rings on the back of the watch, and a 3’ cable terminated with a USB–A connector. Fossil admonishes not to use a USB hub, splitter or y-cable to avoid damaging the Gen 6. One of the most significant improvements for the Gen 6 is fast-charging capability. The Gen 6 will typically charge to 80% in approximately 30+ minutes. The remaining 20% to reaching full charge requires about another 30 minutes. The fast-charging capability is genuinely needed. The battery life of the Gen 6, which Fossil states as being 24 hours in “Daily” battery mode, or multiple days when operating in the “Extended Mode”, may not meet expectations depending on the utilization of the watch functions and features. Screen time and sensor utilization are likely the most significant drains on battery capacity. Customization of the battery modes through selectively turning features on or off allowing the user to configure their own “optimal” power settings is not available on the Gen 6. The available Battery Modes are Daily, Extended and Time (Watch) Only. During the several days that I have been using the Fossil Gen 6 the battery performance varied, ranging between a disappointing 16 hours (much of it off-wrist/inactive) and a respectable 27 hours. The important lesson learned was to charge the watch prior to leaving home. Reverting to Time Only mode necessitates the inconvenience of manually re-enabling each of the individual smart features after recharging. Initial setup and configuration of the Fossil Gen 6 is straightforward. Pairing the watch to a smartphone with the Wear OS app installed is the initial step. The Wear OS app guides the setup process. Exploration of the Fossil Gen 6 menus provides access to the features, functions and settings available for configuration and operation. There is an onboard tutorial to assist in familiarization. In addition to the Wear OS app, it is necessary to install and configure the Google Fit app and the Cardiogram app on the smartphone. Immediately following initial setup, an available firmware update was downloaded and installed, migrating the Gen 6 from Version 2.27 to Version 2.32. The Fossil Gen 6 performs nicely. Phone and text notifications, including vibration alerts (if desired) have been reliable. Connectivity for cell calls has been stable and reliable, and phone call audio quality with the built-in speaker is clear. Cell phone app notifications on the watch is another great convenience. Google Fit, which is pre-installed on Wear OS watches, manages fitness and workout functionality nicely, and can also connect with other apps to share and aggregate data. In order for heart rate and pulse oximetry functions to perform well the sensors on the back of the watch must remain in good, close contact with the skin. A relatively tight fit of the watchband is therefore required, which may be uncomfortable at times (at least I find it uncomfortable). It is obviously not possible to determine the accuracy of those functions of the Gen 6 without utilizing known reliable medical devices to serve as reference standards. However, the Fossil Gen 6, like all other health and fitness smartwatches is not intended to be considered a medical device and can only be used as an aid to maintaining fitness and health. Sleep monitoring has several potential benefits; if data is accurate. The pre-installed Fossil Wellness app provides that functionality, and should be linked to the Google Fit app to aggregate all health and fitness data in a single repository. Ensure that both the apps on the Gen 6 and the corresponding smartphone apps are properly configured and necessary permissions are granted for apps like Google Fit to function and report properly. The touchscreen works well and is responsive, although because of the small screen size and the congestion of menu items it is sometimes difficult to precisely select an intended touch-target. Screen scrolling and swipes were generally fluid without annoying lag or jitter. One of the motivations for selecting the Fossil Gen 6 over other health and fitness watches is that the Fossil uses the Google ecosystem, rather than a closed, proprietary ecosystem as some other watches do. This is an attractive attribute since more makes and models of smartphones should theoretically be fully compatible. If Fossil were to inquire of me regarding suggested improvements I would offer that a larger, 1.4” display, higher capacity battery, conformance with MIL-STD-810g and IP-68 standards, adding Alexa support and Google Wear OS Version 3 as soon as possible and most significantly, adding an ECG sensor are goals worth pursuing. Additional feature and function documentation would also be beneficial and appreciated by users. Overall, the Fossil Gen 6 watch is a very nice smartwatch which performs well, and has an attractive appearance. It has many features and functions that are helpful in both fitness and wellness tracking as well as in daily living.

The Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch is my first smartwatch. I was just looking for something to track my steps more accurately as I don’t always have my phone on me around the house and to have a way to track my workouts. What I didn’t expect was that I would end up liking the other features, like the Google Assistant, weather/UV and I actually like getting some notifications on the watch, which I thought I would turn off completely. The setup and pairing with my iPhone was easy, since I had a google account already, but time consuming since you have to download and log into the Wear OS, Google Fit and create an account for Cardiogram, so it wasn’t a simple process. There is an on-screen tutorial once setup is complete, but for me it got hung up with a “swipe another direction” on the screen and I had to reboot the watch, so not a good first impression. For an iPhone, you have to keep the Wear OS app open in the background, for me it has only taken up 1% of the battery. I have had to mess around with the watch multiple times to get it to reconnect to the watch after being disconnected overnight and event losing the connection during the day. The size is perfect and the weight is manageable. The hardware shortcut buttons are nice to quickly launch apps and I like that I can customize 2 out of the 3. Scrolling with the middle button is smooth and really convenient. It’s easier sometimes to scroll with the button than swiping. Swiping between tiles is smooth. The battery life has been good so far. At the end of the day it has been anywhere between 20-40% battery life remaining. Some of the watch faces have an alternative face when “always-on screen” is enabled. I like to always see the time but allow it to reduce the battery usage. I didn’t notice a huge difference in battery life between having “always-on screen” vs “tilt to wake”, so I have stuck with always-on. There are two battery modes: Daily and Extended. I stick with Daily and customized it a little to my liking. I expect I’ll be charging it daily. There are a number of watch faces that come pre-loaded. I wanted to use an analog watch face, but I didn’t like how I couldn’t see the data, like the weather or steps, at certain times because the watch hands covered the tile. I ended up with the Fossil Digital dashboard as my preferred watch face (see pictures). It’s simple and has 4 customizable data points. I prefer to have the battery, steps, weather and UV readily available. For activity tracking, the Workout tile allows you to track your activity and provides some really nice statistics right on the watch like a heart rate chart, heart rate zones, average speed and pace for each workout. You don’t get all that data on the watch with the Google Fit tile, you must go into the app on your phone to get it. The one downside to the Workout tile is that it always assumes it’s a run, where with Google Fit, you can choose walk, run, bike, strength training and more. I like how you can choose an indoor workout in the Workout tile so it won’t use GPS. The vibration and sound for notifications are subtle but effective. I can choose which apps send through a notification from the Wear OS app, so I can only get notified on my watch for the apps I care about. Controlling audio/video on the watch is a nice to have. While you are watching a youtube video or listening to music, you have audio controls, like pause, back/next and volume. Receiving calls is easy, I have it configured to accept on the watch and answer on the phone, but you can have it answer on the watch as well. Overall, my experience with the Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch is positive. I have had a few problems with Bluetooth connectivity and having to restart the watch or Bluetooth. If it wasn’t for those issues, I would have given it 5 stars. Pros: - Traditional watch styling on a smartwatch - Easy to use and navigate around - Activity statistics right on the watch - Good selection of watch faces, and even more from the Play store - Notifications sounds and vibrations are just right, but can also be adjusted. Cons - Issues with Bluetooth reconnecting to the phone - An instruction manual would have been helpful or at least a manual in the Wear OS app. - You don’t get all features on an iPhone, but that’s to be expected for a Google based watch