Review: Fossil Gen 6 Wellness

A smartwatch is an accessory you don’t really need, but it can be convenient. Without having to pull out your smartphone, you can see and respond to notifications, change music tracks, and glance at the next turn when you’re hurriedly stomping to the nearest coffee shop to warm yourself up in the winter chill. If it becomes annoying to use, then you may as well have just thrown money in the bin.

Unfortunately, that was my experience with Fossil’s new Gen 6 Wellness smartwatch. It’s laggy, plain and simple. It’s not the leap I was hoping it would be, considering this is Fossil’s first Wear OS 3 smartwatch. Sure, it looks nice, but that can only get you so far.

First things first. This smartwatch runs Google’s Wear OS operating system. The company largely left it by the wayside over the years as Apple dominated the smartwatch market, but a few companies like Fossil devotedly continued to build smartwatches for the platform. Last year, Google debuted Wear OS 3, a new version that promised a new look, better performance, more extensive health tracking, and longer battery life. The company also committed to improving the sorely lackluster app selection.

The results are not as impactful as Google may have wanted, but Wear OS is certainly in a better place now with watches like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 and Google’s new Pixel Watch. They operate smoothly, have more apps than ever—including a new Google Home app to control your smart devices—and are reliable when it comes to tracking basic health metrics like heart rate, SpO₂, and even electrocardiograms. Sadly, you can’t give Fossil’s Gen 6 Wellness the same plaudits.

It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4100+ chipset (with 1 GB of RAM), which isn’t the latest processor, but in a meeting, a company spokesperson enthusiastically reinforced how it’s a newer chip than what Google’s Pixel Watch uses. Alas, much like Draco and the Slytherins flying the newer Nimbus 2001 broomsticks in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, that doesn’t really mean anything.

Google’s Pixel Watch is leagues more fluid. It’s not choppy at all, unlike the Gen 6 Wellness. There are moments when it performs well; it’s one of those things that’s near perfect when someone’s looking, and horrid when it’s just you alone. Every time I try to reenact its sluggishness at home, it seems to cooperate and work fine. Out and about when I need it the most? Suddenly, it’s slow. Thankfully, I have an eyewitness! When I was at lunch with a friend, I got a notification on the watch and tried to check it. My friend saw me interact with the Gen 6 Wellness and commented, “It’s laggy, huh?” Yes, yes it is. 

It’s odd—I’ve used other Gen 6 smartwatches like the Fossil Gen 6 and the Skagen Falster Gen 6, which have identical specs, and have not seen this kind of poor performance, so there’s likely some optimization issue with Wear OS 3 here. There’s a chance it will get better over time after software updates.

Perhaps the most annoying problem I have with this watch is the ghost that apparently accompanies it. No, really. Every few hours, it magically decides to turn functions on or off against my will. For example, I don’t want the Gen 6 to ping loudly whenever I get a notification so I have the ringer set to vibrate only. Yet every so often … ping! The same rings true for the Battery Saver mode, which seems to randomly turn on and cripple some of the watch’s functions. Even the Always-On Display, which I’ve tried to turn off, seems to turn back on after every night, and I have to constantly toggle on tilt to wake again too. It’s frustrating.

I don’t want to be too negative. There are some niceties this smartwatch has to offer. There’s NFC, and I’ve used it to pay for my subway fare here in New York City. The 1.28-inch AMOLED screen is also bright and colorful, and the whole watch is 3 ATM water resistant, so it’ll be fine in the rain. 

This is also one of the better-looking smartwatches of late from Fossil. The 44-mm case is simple and minimalist, plus it pairs well with a variety of outfits (you can also swap out the 20-mm bands with anything you’d like). It doesn’t make me hold my breath like the Pixel Watch (I really like how it looks), but it’s pretty nice in its own right and comfy to wear to bed. 

At the moment, the Fossil Gen 6 Wellness lacks Google Assistant, which is a shame as I’ve grown used to asking the voice assistant random queries or adding things to my shopping list when I’m out and about with the Pixel Watch. It’s expected to get it at some point. At least it has access to most other apps you’d want, like YouTube Music or Spotify, Google Maps, and Google Home. (It also has Amazon Alexa preinstalled.)

Healthwise, Fossil no longer bundles in Google Fit by default. You can download it on the Play Store (or third-party apps like Strava and Adidas Running), or just use Fossil’s new Wellness app. You might not want to though, because bare-bones is an understatement. Want to try and track a specific activity? Too bad. You can only track Outdoor or Indoor Workouts, with the former triggering GPS tracking. It should automatically start tracking workouts after five minutes, but it requires movement of the wrist, so it never worked when I was on the exercise bike at the gym. 

You can customize the data on the screen during workouts so you can see heart rate zones, beats per minute, or calories burned instead of the defaults. I’m happy to say my results lined up with the Pixel Watch, so at least the sensors are fairly accurate. That includes the blood oxygen measurements, which were identical to the results from my pulse oximeter. Unlike its nearest competitors, the Gen 6 does not measure electrocardiograms. 

As for battery life, it’s not great. I felt like I routinely had to plop it on the charger. I used it with the Always-On Display and continuous heart rate tracking toggled on, and the Fossil Gen 6 Wellness just about would get me through a day and potentially some sleep tracking (not always guaranteed). Thankfully, it recharges quickly.

Speaking of sleep, the sleep data was not too accurate. The Pixel Watch did a better job of actually noting the times I went to sleep and woke up, whereas the Wellness had more discrepancies. All of this data is viewable in the Fossil Smartwatches app, which is well designed and easy to use. Just don’t expect any supplementary information about … anything. There’s nothing here to walk you through what your sleep data means, or any insights into your fitness. It’s pure data.   

If I don’t enjoy wearing a smartwatch, that’s the end of the story. It doesn’t help that this Gen 6 Wellness costs $300 (though you can usually find it on sale). If it drops to $199 or less, then it might be worthwhile, especially since it's one of the few Wear OS 3 smartwatches that work with iPhones at the moment. Otherwise, I think you get more bang for your buck with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 or Google’s Pixel Watch. If you have an iPhone, you should stick with an Apple Watch SE unless you really dislike square watch faces.