They’re well into touchscreen smartwatches now, but Fossil hasn’t forgotten how they first entered the smartwatch space. The company is continuing their line of stylish smartwatches with the Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition smartwatch, announced as available now this past week. The watch is designed with an analog face and mechanical hands, giving it the look of a normal watch, while a wellness gauge set into the face provides health information like heart rate and VO2 max.
In addition to the analog watch face, the Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition Smartwatch has a stainless steel frame that comes in black, silver, or rose gold, with several interchangeable silicone straps that can be purchased separately. Under the mechanical hands, the smartwatch has a simple always-on 1.1-inch e-ink display, which is used for notifications in addition to wellness information.
Fitness information tracked by the watch includes step and heart rate tracking, blood oxygen levels, an approximation of VO2 max, and sleep analysis. The watch does have GPS, which can be used to track location and distance traveled.
Perhaps more useful for folks who need to monitor their workout intensity, the watch will also display heart rate zones, helping to ensure that you keep your easy days easy and your hard days hard. And, if you don’t remember to manually start an activity, the watch has your back – if it detects a change in movement, it will start recording automatically.
The Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition also has personalization features like smartwatch face options, automatic time and time zone syncing, and voice control using Alexa.
One of the main benefits of going for a hybrid smartwatch is battery life — this isn’t device you should need to charge every night. Fossil says users should expect up to two weeks of battery life on one charge, although we imagine you’d revise that down depending on how many activities you track per day or week.
Fossil’s smartphone app allows users to manage their Fossil smartwatches, access health metric overviews, and sync data from the smartwatch with Google Fit and Apple HealthKit.
Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition Smartwatch Availability
The Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition is available on Fossil’s website for $299. The separate silicone straps are $30 each.