Fossil teases ‘way faster’ Gen 6 wearable days before Galaxy Watch 4 unveil

Abner Li | Aug 9 2021 - 9:18 am PT

Back in June, the Fossil Group said it was releasing a premium “Gen 6” Wear OS watch this fall. Fossil today sent out an email teasing that “Gen 6 is coming” and that it would be “way faster.”

This marketing email delivered to customers today (via Reddit) boldly proclaims that the Gen 6 offers “way more, way faster.” It’s light on details save for:

Fossil’s newest, most advanced smartwatch is coming soon. Sign up to be the first to purchase.

This is the latest tease following Fossil saying that “it’s bringing the best possible Wear OS smartwatch to the market this year” in a Qualcomm press release last month. The going assumption is that the Fossil Gen 6 will use the Snapdragon Wear 4100, but that means it will not get Wear OS 3 until mid-2022 and that there will be some constraints due to not launching the new platform natively.

Meanwhile, Fossil previously touted an unspecified new chip as providing faster performance, better battery life, and LTE globally, as well as “more advanced health features.” A “greater branded design” that would come at a “premium price” was also mentioned.

Fossil’s tease of Gen 6, of course, comes two days before Samsung is widely expected to announce a pair of Wear OS 3 devices. It will be the first to use the unified platform created with Google. Fossil explicitly saying you can “get on the list” — on a page that features an absolutely tremendous amount of spin — to purchase is clearly an attempt to preempt people from immediately going out and getting the Watch 4 until Fossil has at least announced its offering.