Fossil Gen 6 Review

The Gen 6 is the next generation of smartwatch from Fossil. It offers an elegant and fashionable option to users who may not need more serious fitness tracking abilities provided by other watches.

Performance Comparison

Ease of Use

This metric assessed the user-friendliness of each smartwatch based on the ease of taking screenshots, water resistance, charging setup, crown or bezel scrolling, screen responsiveness, and the ease of changing wrist bands. Right out of the gate, the Fossil Gen 6 failed to impress us.

The screenshot feature, which requires simultaneous use of the power and volume button, was unreliable, and we could not get it to work as advertised. We also could not reliably capture videos. The Gen 6 is also more splash-resistant than waterproof. It has a low water resistance rating of 30 meters, whereas most other wearables we tested have a 50-meter rating. If you don't want to risk ruining a fairly expensive wearable, we suggest removing the watch for showers and avoiding using it for anything other than shallow pool fitness tracking.

The Gen 6 uses a circle pad type of charger, meaning there is nothing to align or hook up, so it's easy to use. However, the charging setup has some of the weakest magnets of the watches we tested, and it is also on the heftier side. The combination of weak magnets and the weight of the watch means that you have to take care not to knock it free of the charger if it is resting precariously at the edge of a desk or nightstand.

While the Gen 6 uses a convenient crown scroll, which helps improve usability, it does not work with every menu. Still, the watch is snappy and responsive, with performance approaching the best smartwatches we tested. It reacts quickly to the turn of a wrist, and the screen response to touching and swiping is fast. A fairly standard lever type of wristband release makes changing bands easy, though not the best of the watches we tested.

Smart Functions

The Gen 6 started a disappointing performance trend regarding our smart functions metric. We tested popular app selection and support, taking phone calls, controlling music, and making wireless payments. We also considered and evaluated standalone GPS and cellular capability. This watch lacks widespread third-party app availability or support for many popular apps.

While this watch can take calls, the settings are buried in the menu, and it took us some effort to make the feature work as it is disabled by default. The microphone is terrible, and there is a lot of feedback produced during phone calls. The Gen 6 does a bit better with music, even if it does not allow a thumbs up or down via Pandora. It also supports google payment and includes a standalone GPS, though it does not have any cellular capabilities. This means you will always need your smartphone to be nearby to support its limited cellular-dependent features.

Display

The main way in which we interact with most modern smartwatches is through the touch interface, so this is a critical component. We rated screen quality and the ability to easily and clearly read text on the wearable in the presence of bright light or the absence of light. We also tested auto-brightness and always on settings and abilities.

The Gen 6 was one of our weaker performers in regards to screen quality. We found it only to be as good as some of the worst-performing smartwatches from previous generations and a disappointment from some of the more expensive devices we tested. However, the always-on and auto-brightness abilities and settings are on par with top-tier wearables. The display's brightness adequately adjusts to the lighting of different environments, and the 'always-on' setting runs a less featured version of the normal face.

Fitness Impact

For this metric, we tested the step counter, heart rate monitor, workout tracking, and stair tracking. Unfortunately, the Gen 6 is far from being a good fitness tracker. It miscounted steps, consistently missing about 6%, compared to our control device, and the watch has no stair counting feature. Heart rate monitoring was only accurate while resting and significantly deteriorated during a workout.

On a slightly more positive note, the Gen 6 has a huge array of workout tracking apps that allow for goal setting, like a target distance or calorie goal. Unfortunately for users of those apps, the underlying data collection may be inaccurate if the dismal step counting and heart rate monitoring performance is in any way indicative of how the apps collect data.

Battery

Our last metric looked at battery performance, both lifespan and charging capabilities. The Gen 6 performed exceptionally well in our recharging tests, recharging to a full charge significantly faster than any other watch we tested. This is fortunate because users of this watch will be recharging the watch frequently as it has terrible battery life under normal use — one of the worst we have ever tested.

Value

Overall we weren't too impressed with the performance of the this watch for the price. Some top-tier smartwatches provide premium performance for a premium price. Others that we tested follow a value pricing strategy. This watch is neither and is a poor value for the price.

Conclusion

The performance of the Fossil Gen 6 wasn't very impressive at all. Other smartwatches provide greater support for popular apps, have better smart functions and features, do a better job fitness tracking, have better screen quality, are easier to use, last much longer before requiring a recharge, and are more affordable. Bottom line, this is an okay watch, but there are much better options, and we can't recommend it over a handful of others.