Fossil smartwatches may get updates more frequently and consistently in the future, at least the Gen 6 and newer models. A Fossil executive recently said that the company is planning to push quarterly feature updates and security patches to its Wear OS 3-powered wrist wearables. The executive didn’t elaborate on the plans, though.
Fossil plans to push quarterly updates to its smartwatches
The arrival of Wear OS 3, which Google co-developed with Samsung a couple of years back, has given smartwatch brands like Fossil a new life. Fossil’s Gen 6 picked up the Wear OS 3 update in October last year. The updated platform makes the wearable feel like a whole new device. The company has also been keeping the Gen 6 lineup relevant in the market by launching new models, like the Wellness Edition in October last year and a hybrid version with an E Ink display last week.
In an interview with CNET, Fossil’s vice president of product Brook Eaton said Wear OS 3 is a “very relevant platform for some time to come”. He highlighted the company’s commitment to providing regular updates to its smartwatches. He referred to the Wear OS 3 update that arrived alongside the launch of the Gen 6 Wellness Edition a few months back. Fossil followed up with another feature update in late 2022 with some bug fixes and enhancements. “We did another update that was pretty meaningful in December,” Eaton said.
Going forward, Fossil plans to push quarterly updates to its Gen 6 smartwatches, including security updates. Google releases new security patches every month for all Android and Wear OS devices. It’s up to the vendors to push those releases to their respective devices. Samsung does a very good job at it, and Fossil doesn’t want to be lagging behind the competition. Speaking of which, Fossil is also working to bring Google Assistant to its smartwatches. The Gen 6 models currently use Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
Unfortunately, Eaton didn’t share more information about these plans. It’s unclear if those quarterly updates will bring new features and improvements like Google’s quarterly feature drops for Pixel smartphones. There’s also no timeline available regarding the availability of Google Assistant on Fossil smartwatches. Hopefully, we will hear more about it soon. In the meantime, the company is also expected to launch Gen 7 models. The next-gen Fossil smartwatches should feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon W5 series chipset. We will let you know as soon as we have more information.