Fossil releases Gen 5 smartwatches with WearOS and Snapdragon 3100-soc

Fossil releases the fifth generation of its WearOS watch. The new model has a Snapdragon 3100-soc, 1GB ram and 8GB flash storage. The memory and storage space have been doubled compared to the predecessors. The soc is also new.

There are several variants of the Fossil Gen 5, aimed at men and women. The differences are in the color and finish of the straps. The watch case is the same at 44mm for all versions. The hardware is also the same for all models. The watches are based on the Snapdragon 3100-soc, which Qualcomm announced last year, and have a round 1.28 “OLED screen with a pixel density of 328 pixels per inch. The suggested retail price is 299 euros.

The watches have a function to measure the heart rate, and are equipped with GPS and Bluetooth. Users can connect the watches to a smartphone with at least Android 4.4 or iOS 9.3. Apple users will also be able to take calls with the watch from the fall. That functionality is still missing, but will be added with a firmware update. It was already possible to handle voice calls from Android phones via the watch.

Fossil claims that the new watches will run for several days on a battery charge with the Extended Battery Mode option, showing only notifications and measuring heart rate. There is also a Time-Only Mode in which only the time is displayed. It is unknown how long the watch will work in that position. The mode in which all functionality is available is called Daily Mode.