No, those aren’t Fossil’s Gen 7 Wear OS smartwatches

Kyle Bradshaw | Jun 6 2022 - 1:58 pm PT

Ahead of a device’s release, companies need to get approval from regulatory agencies like the FCC in the United States, as well as organizations like the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). In the last few months, new devices from Fossil have arrived at both of these groups, sparking rumors of Fossil’s Gen 7 Wear OS watches. However, that’s not what these new watches are set to be.

Fossil Group is easily one of the most prolific makers of Wear OS devices today, with each of their fashion brands — like Kate Spade, Michael Kors, and Diesel — crafting a fitting take on a premium smartwatch. The most recent smartwatches from Fossil, the “Gen 6” series, were the first to run on the Snapdragon Wear 4100 and are poised to be some of the only watches that can be upgraded to Wear OS 3.

Typically, Fossil prepares a new generation of smartwatches every year, often launching in August. Based on that timing, it wouldn’t be a surprise to start seeing leaks about the Fossil Gen 7 Wear OS watches sometime soon.

In late April, Fossil got approval from the FCC for two new watches — DW14 and DW15 — each of which was further subdivided into “F1” and “S1” models. While the FCC won’t allow photos of the new watches to be viewed until later this month, there are already enough clues to piece together what we’re looking at here.

In one document, we can see an example of where the FCC-required regulatory information will be shown in the smartwatch’s menus. Take note of the home and back buttons visible on screen, as this is not a design you’ll see on Wear OS. Instead, the page shown seems near identical — save for the buttons’ locations — to where you’ll find the FCC eLabel on Fossil’s line of Hybrid HR smartwatches.

More recently, these same supposed Fossil Gen 7 watches arrived for approval from the Bluetooth SIG, bringing more clues about these watches. For starters, there’s no sign of these watches running Wear OS, instead there’s a reference to “Cordio,” Bluetooth software for low-power devices.

Similarly, instead of a reference to a Snapdragon Wear chip, we find an Apollo3 Blue series processor from Ambiq. These chips are designed to be “ultra-low power” and would not be enough for Wear OS.

Putting it all together, it becomes quite clear that we’re looking at an upcoming group of Fossil Hybrid HR watches, not the latest fashionable Wear OS options. That being the case, it means we know next to nothing about what changes or improvements Fossil intends for its Gen 7 Wear OS watches – at least for now.