Other Gen 6 watches will also get Wear OS 3 soon
Source: Fossil
Wear OS 3 has been around for over a year at this point, but the platform has been positively slow in coming to hardware. For a very long time, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 was your only option, and although it’s now joined by the Watch 5 range and Google’s recently launched Pixel Watch, that’s still not much of a choice. Although there is the Montblanc Summit 3, we were very curious when the OS would add additional third-party watches. Fortunately, Fossil is entering the fray by announcing the Gen 6 Wellness Edition smartwatch – its first-ever watch to ship with Wear OS 3 – along with plans to update other Gen 6 devices.
As the name suggests, the Gen 6 Wellness Edition isn’t all that different from the standard Gen 6, which is already one of the best smartwatches you can get. It has a Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus SoC and 1GB of RAM, along with 8GB of storage (via The Verge).
Although the hardware is nothing new, there are two big additions for this new edition, the most important of them being Wear OS 3. According to Fossil, the user interface itself is very similar to that of the Pixel Watch, rather than using a fully custom skin like Samsung. – so if you liked what you saw on the Pixel Watch, you’ll probably like it very much. You’ll be able to take advantage of everything except the Google Assistant, which isn’t currently available from Fossil.
The second addition is the arrival of a new Wellness app, which gives you SpO2 measurements, cardio estimates using VO2 max, automatic workout detection, and more.
If you already have a Gen 6 smartwatch, you’ll be happy to know that the update will eventually hit all Gen 6 devices under any of Fossil’s brands, including the standard Fossil Gen 6, Skagen Falster Gen 6 and the Michael Kors Gen 6 (via Android Central). Gen 5 and earlier hardware, meanwhile, will remain on its current version of Wear OS. This rollout will begin on October 17, the same day the Wellness Edition smartwatch is released.
Remember that once the update is complete, your watch will be reset to factory settings and you will need to pair it with your phone again using the Fossil Companion app. Keep an eye out for this update coming to your smartwatch in the coming days.