Whereas the first days of Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) were populated with devices from the likes of Motorola, LG, and Huawei, today’s climate is much different. Now the space is largely occupied by more traditional watch manufacturers.
Fossil is one of those brands which has been around for much of Wear OS and who continues to push out products. Today finds the watch maker introducing its Gen 5 wearable. As often is the case with Fossil, the Gen 5 offer up a premium design that builds on its predecessors.
The Carlyle HR and Juliana HR are both 44mm watches that are 12mm thick with 1.28-inch OLED displays. Additionally, both have a stainless steel body, rotating power button, and are compatible with 22mm bands. Multiple colorways are available for both versions.
Things get pretty interesting for the Fossil Gen 5 in both hardware and software. Indeed, the watch now have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 3100 chipset and are paired with 1GB RAM. Both should go a long way to improve performance and further battery life. Oh, and there’s 8GB of storage for apps and media, or about twice what you’ll find in previous watches.
The Fossil Gen 5 are outfitted with a speaker which can be used for Google Assistant responses and taking calls from the wrist. And, with Spotify preloaded on the watch, it can also be used for listening to music — for better or worse.
Other hardware worth pointing out are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, a heart rate sensor, and wireless charging. According to Fossil, the Gen 5 can get up to 80% charge in one hour. The watch is also water resistant up to 30 meters so it works just fine in pools and showers.
Fossil relies on some of the Snapdragon Wear 3100’s features to deliver four new battery saving modes including Extended, Daily, Custom, and Time-Only.
Daily Mode works like any other Wear OS watch and delivers about 24 hours of battery life per charge. On the other end, the Extended Battery Mode promises “multiple days” on a single charge and doesn’t kill notifications or heart rate monitoring in the process.
Fossil offers the Gen 5 in six color options, three of which fall under the Julianna HR and the other under the Carlyle HR. Think flashier and more stylish for the former and more muted and unassuming for the latter.
The Fossil Gen 5 watches are available for $295 from Fossil’s website and will be sold through various retailers in the coming weeks.