Fossil Group, a company that tried to produce stylish smart watches representing their traditional counterparts, is now completely giving up its efforts in this market segment. Fossil's Gen 6 is thus its last generation of watches with Wear OS.
“As the smartwatch landscape has evolved significantly over the past few years, we have made the strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business,” a Fossil spokesperson said. “Fossil is refocusing its resources to support our core strengths and the core segments of our business that continue to provide us with strong growth opportunities: designing and distributing compelling traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own and licensed brands.”
The company made smartwatches during the worst possible period of Wear OS. In times when major OEMs and even Google seemed to have forgotten about Wear OS, Fossil was there. That was until 2021, when Google and Samsung teamed up to create Wear OS 3 based on Android 11. They really managed to make the platform something big and usable, but Fossil stopped chasing. In addition, this company did not release a single update on Wear OS last year. However, the company mentions that it will continue to bring support for its current models "over the next few years."
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Fossil's exit from the smartwatch market will leave a clear hole in the industry. Its miniThe minimalist and fashionable approach to smartwatch design is unlike anything else out there today. The closest thing to a Fossil smartwatch is probably the Withings ScanWatch line, but those are more focused on health than fashion. Incidentally, Fossil also owns the Citizen, Skagen, Diesel, Michael Kors, and Kate Spade brands. So we won't see any Wear OS devices from them either.
