Fossil Gen 5 Review A Fashionable Smartwatch with Substance

Pocket-lint

Fossil - now a veteran in the smartwatch market - is virtually single-handedly keeping the Google Wear OS platform running. Yes, there are others, but with the mix of styles, popular brand names and being relatively affordable, it is the brand to go to for an Android-based smartwatch.

For its Gen 5 series, Fossil packed in the much-needed Snapdragon 3100, a heart-rate sensor and GPS location tracking as well as replacing the sluggish and weak wireless charging disk for a much more reliable and speedy contact charging system.

Even with CES 2020 behind us, Fossil's latest products still use this same hardware, so it's really all about choosing your style.

Our quick take

Fossil's 5th generation smartwatches solve many of the issues we had with previous years' devices: there's no smoother performance and added functionality like GPS and heart-rate monitoring. Plus, the battery isn't sluggishly slow to charge any more. That's a lot of pain points wiped out. As a result, Fossil is still the brand to go for if you're after a fashionable smartwatch and aren't an Apple user.

While we did have a couple of tiny issues with GPS data loading during running sessions, there was nothing so severe that we'd discourage you from buying one. In all the key elements you'd want your smartwatch to perform, the 5th Gen Fossil does well. It's smooth, reliable, and a lot quicker than many other previous generation Wear OS watches.

Even if this particular model doesn't work for you, Fossil has a whole host of styles and brand lines in its huge consumer brand, so there's no shortage of smartwatches with similar features, but in a style more to your liking. And that is arguably the joy of Fossil: it's fashion first, but it has now made the tech side of its watches much better too.

Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch - 4.0 / 5

You'll find a look, no trouble

• Stainless steel quick release mesh band
• 44mm case (on our review unit)

If there's one thing Fossil knows how to do well, it's fashionable watches. So when it creates smartwatches, it builds them in different styles, colours, finishes and with different straps and bands available.

Or unit - named the Julianna - has a black 44mm case with a gold coloured bezel around the watch face, and a black Milanese-style steel watch band. Unlike Apple's Milanese, which conveniently uses a magnet to ensure endless versatility, the Fossil method uses a clasp, which you have to adjust until you find the fit that works for you.

Thankfully, this isn't an overly difficult process, as you release the clasp by flicking up a portion that holds it tightly to one of the strap's indents, slide it, then lock it back down in place. You can do it with a small flat-head screwdriver or anything else with a small, slim, flat edge.

The good thing about this style of watch strap, which is essentially micro-sized chainmail, is that it's as strong as it is flexible. It fits perfectly around the contours of your arm and is comfortable. If you ever fancy changing it out, there's a quick-release system to detach it from the case. We switched it out for the brown leather Fossil strap from the third generation Fossil series.

As for the casing and design of the watch itself, it looks and feels slimmer and more modest than some of the previous designs. While watches like the Gen 3/4 Explorist had quite a heft to them, the Julianna and Carlyle Gen 5's are subtle, svelte and less bulky.

There is a slight issue with the Julianna though: size. Originally pitched to us as a watch for narrower (supposedly female) wrists, the Julianna is 44mm. That's a big watch size, and both the women who tried it on for testing purposes found it far too large to be comfortably worn throughout the day. So in the end, it found its way onto this male reviewer's arm instead. It might not be the most traditionally masculine, but with the dark brown leather strap we rather like it.

Of course, there are other styles and colours available, so don't let any of that put you off the series. One version of Julianna has shiny little imitation diamonds dotted around the frame and along the middle of the metal link bracelet.

We do like the design of the buttons along the right edge, though. They're small and give a nice firm spring feel when pressed. What's more, the middle crown can be turned to control what's on the screen, so you can scroll it up to get to your notifications or scroll down to view the quick settings pane. It's tremendously pleasing (and useful) when you don't want to use the touchscreen.

Round screens

If there's one feature that immediately draws buyers to Wear OS over Apple Watch, it's arguably that the watch has a round display, while Apple Watch seems to be sticking forever to the rectangular watch screen.

It might be difficult to create a user interface with text that works well on the round screen, but there's no denying that in some situations a round watch just works better. Let's not forget, a lot of the reason anyone buys a watch is purely for the way it looks. Round screens are a must-have for some.

As for the actual display quality, it's certainly a decent panel. It's AMOLED, so the pixels can switch off individually, creating an inky black and high-contrast look. It also means you get that always-on ambient mode which uses a lot less power than the fully-on watch face.

Colours are vibrant, and you can always see the time in its default mode. In ambient mode - as has been the case for some time - you see the time update minute-by-minute with minimal brightness and no animations to process. This ensures battery longevity.

Actually useful for exercise

In previous years, Fossil's watches weren't particularly adept at tracking your workout sessions. They lacked both GPS and heart-rate sensors, but the latest watches (from Gen 4 onwards) have had them both built in, and so you can install apps like Strava to track your running sessions, and get all the health data you'd hope to get in a fitness tracking watch.

What we will say is that you do need a third-party app to make the most of this. Google's own Fit app is a bit lightweight, and so it's best to find another. Thankfully, Google Play is full of options that you can install, whether it be Strava, Nike Run Club, or another decent app.

The big advantage to having GPS built-in is that you can use these apps without having to have your phone on you at the same, the watch does the tracking free and untethered from its smartphone overlord. It does seem to take a minute or two to latch on to the location though, and that can mean the end result ends up being a little off.

On a 10K running route, we compared the Fossil against the Apple Watch S4, and it was consistently 100-200 metres behind the Apple Watch. Another issue we saw during a test session was that the Fossil seemed to stick on 1.3km for about five minutes, falling way behind the Apple Watch's distance tracking, until it seemed to jump back up to a more accurate distance. After that it was updating properly, so it may have just been a minor blip.

Inside, the 5th Gen Fossil is powered by the Snapdragon 3100, again an upgrade on the previous 2100 which had run on smartwatches for far too long. With the new chip, the software and experience seems considerably smoother. Animations are a tiny bit stuttery, but not massively so. What's more, various elements tend to load much quicker than before, whether that be the Play Store list of apps, or any installed app in general. It's been a long time coming, but we're glad it's finally here as our biggest previous moan about Fossil watches has been rectified.

Charging ahead

• No more Qi wireless charging

One of the most disappointing features of previous Fossil watches - stretching back generations - was the speed at which they charged. They used a wireless charging disc similar to the Apple Watch, which snapped on to the back using magnets. Except, not only was the magnetic connection quite weak, but it also delivered the power sluggishly. It would take hours to fully charge a watch, which essentially meant you were forced to charge it overnight, every night.

With the fifth generation, things have changed. There's still a magnetic charging disc, but the magnets are much stronger and snap-on with a decent amount of force. What's more, it doesn't use a wireless charging technology like Qi to deliver the power. Instead, there are two gold rings on the underside of the watch case, and two little pins that stick out of the charging disc that line up perfectly with the two rings.

With the combination of actual contact and a decent magnet, the watch doesn't need lining up - it just snaps easily into place and charges much more quickly than before. After 35 minutes plugged in can deliver around 60 per cent of the battery. So rather than take three hours or more to fully charge from zero, it can do so in around an hour.

The weird part about the charging was similar to the GPS data freezing during our run. Several times during charging it would show the same battery percentage for a good few minutes, before jumping up to a much higher level. It wasn't constantly updating in real time.

Wear OS improved, but not perfect

Fossil might be leading the charge in the world of smartwatches with its plethora of styles and brands, but when it comes to software it seems Wear OS is lacking in a couple of areas in comparison with the Apple Watch. Perhaps most key is the approach to health metrics and how it handles that data.

Gen 5 watches have heart-rate monitors, so you can keep an eye on HR over the course of the day, you can even use Google Fit - or any number of tracking apps - to log in your running or activity settings. Open up Google Fit on a smartphone, though, and you're greeted by quite basic data.

You don't get a the in depth trends like you might on Garmin or Apple's services. Likewise, the general "Move Minutes" and "Heart Points" are a bit simple. But then again, if your only aim is to make sure you move enough, and briskly enough, then these measures are good enough. Just don't expect to be able to dig down deep into your running performance.

What the Fossil 5 can do is show you useful - however sparse - charts on your sleeping and your daily, weekly and monthly heart-rate patterns.

WearOS works best with Android phones when it comes to interacting with notifications from your phone. You can reply to messages from your wrist, using your voice or the touchscreen. With iOS on iPhone, you're limited to just viewing the notifications, without the ability to interact or respond to them from your wrist.

To recap

The 5th generation watch solves many of the issues we had with previous years' devices: there's no smoother performance and added functionality like GPS and heart-rate monitoring. Plus, the battery isn't sluggishly slow to charge any more. That's a lot of pain points wiped out. As a result, Fossil is still the brand to go for if you're after a fashionable smartwatch and aren't an Apple user.

Fossil Gen 5 review: Googles Wear OS smartwatch at its best

The Fossil Gen 5 is easily the best Wear OS smartwatch you can buy at the moment, and as long as you dont expect it to be an Apple Watch-beater, it gets the job done and looks the part.

Smartwatches that run Googles Wear OS software have come in many different designs from various different manufacturers, and work with both Android and the iPhone. But they have long been plagued by sluggishness, poor battery life and a software experience that is behind the competition.

Fossil Group, which includes the signature Fossil brand and many others such as Michael Kors, Diesel, Misfit and Skagen, has been making the best of Wear OS, but often that simply hasnt been good enough.

Fossils fifth-generation smartwatch, the Gen 5, is important for the whole of Wear OS, as its internal workings will also form the basis of all of Fossil Groups various smartwatches this year.

A watch made by a watchmaker

The Gen 5 is a good-looking watch in its own right, with various different colours, finishes and straps available. It doesnt immediately scream that its a piece of technology, which is a good thing.

At 12mm thick and 44mm wide the watch isnt small, but it looks fairly slim, easily fits under a shirt cuff and doesnt look out of place on relatively small wrists.

The 1.28in AMOLED screen is crisp, clear and bright enough to see in direct sunlight with automatic adjustment. Its on all the time by default so you can see the time and notifications at a glance.

Fossil provides loads of highly customisable watch faces, most of which look really good, plus there are hundreds more on the Play Store. Theres a speaker hole in one side of the watch with two buttons that launch your choice of apps and one rotating crown on the other.

As a watch, then, it ticks most boxes.

Specifications

• Screen: 1.28in AMOLED (328ppi)

• Case size: 44mm

• Case thickness: 12mm

• Band size: standard 22mm

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100

• RAM: 1GB

• Storage: 8GB

• Operating system: Wear OS

• Water resistance: 30 metres (3ATM)

• Sensors: altimeter, ambient light, gyroscope, heart rate, microphone, speaker NFC, GPS

• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, wifi

Performance and battery life

The Gen 5 manages to banish the issues of poor performance and battery life of Wear OS to the past. Performance is good, if not quite on par with the Apple Watch Series 5, with no noticeable lag or dip in speed in general usage, helped by the 1GB of RAM and newer Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor.

Battery life is also improved, lasting at least a day with the Daily mode activated, which turns on all the functions. Put on my wrist at 7am with background heart rate monitoring, the Gen 5 ends the day at 11pm with at least 25% battery left a marked improvement over most Wear OS watches that struggle to make it through a full day.

The Extended battery mode, which turns off some of the features including the always-on screen, lasts more than two days between charges, while time-only mode lasts much longer still.

Charging takes just over an hour via the small white magnetic USB puck that attaches to a ring to the back.

Its worth noting that while the watch comes with a two-year warranty, Fossil said the battery cannot be replaced, meaning the watch is ultimately disposable.

Wear OS

Wear OS has improved over the last year, but simply isnt as feature-complete or as slick as Apples watchOS or Samsungs Tizen on their respective watches.

You navigate via swipes on the screen. Left to right for Google Assistant. Right to left for various widgets for things such as timers, Google Fit and others called Tiles. Swipe up from the bottom for notifications and other bits. Swipe down from the top for quick settings, such as airplane mode, volume, battery modes and Google Pay. Long-press on the watch face to change it.

Press the crown in to access a list of apps or go back to the watch face. Swipe from left to right typically works as the back button on Android. Its fairly simple and easy to get the hang of.

Notification handling is where Wear OS shines. Notifications pop up from the bottom and can be dismissed, expanded to read the text of emails or WhatsApps, or actioned with the same options as available via the notification shade on your phone such as archiving with Gmail or similar.

You can reply to messages using smart canned responses, your voice to transcribe, or with the surprisingly good keyboard which, while fiddly, gets the job done for quick things even if youre a bit fat-fingered.

Media controls are also great. Start playing something on your phone and they pop up on the watch to skip track or change the volume using the crown. Theres a dedicated Spotify app too, but it wont allow you to store music offline for that you have to resort to Googles Play Music app.

Popular third-party apps such as Strava and Citymapper are available through the store, while Googles services are well catered for with Maps, Translate, Fit and others available.

Long-press on the crown or a swipe from left to right on the watch face to get to Google Assistant, which will set timers, alarms, reminders and answer questions via voice straight from the watch using the built-in speaker and information on the screen. It works well, as long as you have a connection to your phone.

Wear OS on the Gen 5 is the best it ever has been. But its certainly not a perfect experience. The setup process failed once on one of the watches, requiring a reset and starting again. Occasionally the watch disconnects from the phone and the only way to get it working again is to reboot it.

The rotating crown scrolls in apps and settings, except when it doesnt. Some apps such as Spotify refuse input from the crown, others such as face editing settings or Google Fit only work sometimes. Its unpredictable enough that you just resort to swiping on the screen instead by default. The list of little niggles goes on. Theyre not deal breakers, but each is annoying.

Its also worth noting that Fossil also will not commit to a set length of software support for the Gen 5.

Health

The biggest area of weakness in Wear OS is its built-in health tracking related functionality or lack thereof. Google Fit is the main app here. It can count your steps, movement minutes and heart points just fine, it monitors your heart rate in the background occasionally, and will guide you through breathing to destress.

But the Fit app doesnt do much beyond the basics, not even sleep monitoring. It can track a lot of workouts, but the screens it displays for things such as running arent customisable. Using it for tracking workouts also affects battery life, particularly if youre playing music to Bluetooth headphones while running.

Third-party fitness apps such as Strava, which is simple but effective, may fill the gap for specific functions. Nike Run Club and Cardiogram also come pre-installed.

Overall, Google is miles behind both Apple and Samsung, let alone the likes of Fitbit or Garmin, in features and polish on health tracking and analysis, and Wear OS suffers as a result.

Observations

• The bands are standard quick-release pin 22mm straps so you can easily swap them, although the black silicone is of high quality.

• The pink leather strap feels nice but picks up dirt and grime almost immediately, becoming discoloured.

• Google Pay works great on the watch and supports most UK and US banks.

• You can take calls on your watch.

• The Gen 5 works with iOS with most of the same functionality except a lack of Siri and iMessage support.

Price

The Fossil Gen 5 comes in two versions: Carlyle HR and Julianna HR, both costing 279.

The Carlyle HR comes in black with a silicone or leather strap for 279, a stainless steel with metal strap for 279 or a black stainless steel with metal, leather and silicone straps for 339.

The Julianna HR comes in rose gold with blush leather strap or metal strap for 279 or a smoke stainless steel with milanese loop for 279.

For comparison, the Apple Watch Series 5 starts at 399 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 costs 259.

Verdict

The Fossil Gen 5 is easily the best Wear OS watch available and bodes well for the rest of the brands within Fossil Groups roster.

It relegates problems with performance and sub-day battery life to the past, and looks good doing it. If you want your smartwatch to look like a more traditional timepiece the Fossil is great.

But Wear OS just isnt as polished or feature-packed as rivals from Apple and Samsung. Use the Gen 5 as a basic smartwatch with excellent notification handling and music controls and youll be happy. Try to get comprehensive health tracking and advanced features and you might struggle.

Will it beat an Apple Watch Series 5? Not a chance. But one of the Gen 5s biggest strengths is that it isnt an Apple Watch so youre not going to see every person in the room wearing the same watch as you. Its also at least 120 cheaper.

If you want a good-looking smartwatch that doesnt follow the crowd and ticks enough boxes to be a replacement for a traditional digital or analogue timepiece, then the Fossil Gen 5 in its various guises is worth considering. Particularly on a deal.

Pros: looks like a watch, not as common as an Apple Watch, works with both Android and iOS, good notification and music controls, Google Pay, speaker, 30-metre water resistance, at least one days battery, third-party app support, standard 22mm straps.

Cons: health tracking not as comprehensive as competitors, battery life not as good as competitors, software niggles persist, iMessage support lacking on iOS.

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