- A Fossil smartwatch running Wear OS has passed through the FCC.
- It might be a hint Gen 6 is coming soon.
- Will it use the faster Snapdragon Wear 4100, though?
When Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear 4100, it raised an obvious question for smartwatch enthusiasts: how soon would Fossil use it in Gen 6 or a similar successor to the Gen 5? It might not be long.
Droid Life has spotted an FCC filing for a group of four Fossil smartwatches that appears to be the upcoming Gen 6. Screenshots in the filing clearly show it to be a Wear OS device, and the DW11 model series hints at a sequel to Gen 5 (DW10). There appear to be two Fossil-branded models along with Michael Kors equivalents.
The listings are unsurprisingly short on hardware features, although they do confirm the presences of Bluetooth, NFC, and Wi-Fi. You can use Google Pay, then, but you shouldn’t expect Fossil to add cellular data to Gen 6.
Read more: The best Fossil smartwatches
Provided this is a direct sequel, it offers hope that Fossil will quickly tackle some of the outstanding issues with Gen 5. Battery life was a particular sore point. The existing model lasts longer than many Wear OS watches, but you’ll struggle to get more than a full day — here’s hoping Fossil has addressed this, whether through software or more efficient chips.
There are other problems to address. The Gen 5’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 was up to the job, but it was still a modest update to an old chip. If Fossil uses the Snapdragon Wear 4100 in Gen 6, it could significantly improve performance and might just extend battery life in the process.
We’d like to see Fossil match its rivals on features, not just fix last year’s flaws.
Some software challenges may be tougher. Although Fossil went out of its way to improve functionality with Gen 5, it’s still true that Wear OS lags behind other smartwatch platforms in some areas. Google’s latest update is focused on basic performance rather than features. Fossil might not need to reinvent Wear OS with Gen 6, but we wouldn’t mind if it added more software features.
There’s also the matter of keeping up with the competition. Heart rate tracking is useful, but newer smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 add blood oxygen monitoring. We’d like to see Fossil match its rivals on features, not just fix last year’s flaws.
