Fossil unveils Wellness Edition of its Gen 6 Hybrid watch with a Wellness Gauge dial
Fossil is leaning into health features for its smartwatches â in October it unveiled Wellness Edition versions of its Wear OS 3 smartwatches with a Wellness app that monitors more health data than the usual Fossil Gen 6 watches. Those have plenty of smartwatch functionality too, at the cost of battery life. Now the company is introducing a Wellness Edition of its Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid watch that changes the balance of that equation.
This new model has up to 2 weeks of battery life, unlike the non-hybrid watches that only last a couple of days. The difference comes from switching Googleâs Wear OS to a proprietary system and changing the display â E-Ink replaces OLED.
Like the regular Gen 6 Hybrids, the Wellness Edition model has continuous heart rate tracking and SpO2 tracking. The more advanced sensor system can now measure your VO2 Max and show your heart rate zones during during exercise â these are exclusive to the new Wellness Gauge Dial.
As for the watch itself, it has a 44mm case made out of stainless steel and measures 11.4mm thick. It has classic watch hands that sit above a 1.1â E-Ink display that handles the more advanced features (the E-Ink display has a light so you can see it in the dark). The case is water resistant up to 3 ATM.
While not as advanced as the Wear OS watches, this one can show notifications for incoming calls and texts (including messages from third-party apps). It syncs with your calendar, shows real-time weather info, lets you control music on your phone as well as letting you talk to Amazon Alexa (there is no speaker, though, so you only get text results and you canât answer a call).
There are three colorways to start with, black, silver and gold cases. They come with black, blue and pink wrist straps to match their bezels, but Fossil is offering additional 20mm silicone straps.
The Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition watches will be available on the companyâs official site starting on January 5 (Thursday). The prices will be unveiled then (the original Gen 6 Hybrid watches started at $230).