Fossil has now officially announced its newest smartwatch, the Fossil Gen 6. It’s the first watch to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 4100+ platform and will also be compatible with Google’s upcoming Wear OS 3 update coming sometime in 2022.
The Fossil Gen 6, however, goes on pre-order starting August 30th. According to Fossil Canada’s website, the watch starts at $429, and there’s a stainless steel version for $459. Customers can pre-order the Gen 6 watches now, which are set to “ship close to Sep 27, 2021,” according to the website. The Gen 6 will also be available from Watch Station. In the U.S., the Gen 6 starts at $299 (roughly $377 CAD).
Fossil says the new watch offers faster app load times, a more responsive experience and more efficient power use courtesy of the Wear 4100+.
Other new features include fast charging that powers the Gen 6 to 80 percent in just over 30 minutes, continuous heart rate tracking, SpO2 sensor for tracking blood-oxygen levels and speaker functionality for using Assistant and taking calls. Additionally, the watch is swim-proof up to 3ATM and offers Bluetooth 5.0 LE, Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC.
The Fossil Gen 6 features a 1.28-inch touchscreen display, stainless steel case and comes in 42 and 44mm sizes. It has 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM.
Of course, the announcement should hardly come as a surprise. Fossil teased the watch earlier this month, and a recent leak showed off renders of the Gen 6 smartwatch. Plus, Google effectively confirmed the Gen 6 was on the way when it clarified the Wear OS 3 update process, writing that the update would come to “Fossil Group’s new generation of devices launching later this year.”
You can learn more about the Fossil watches here.
Update 08/31/2021 at 12:00pm: Added another online retailer that will offer the Fossil Gen 6.
Update 08/30/2021 at 9:26am: Updated pricing and pre-order details from Fossil’s website.