CES 2023 – The connected watch Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Hybrid version trades Wear OS for needles and autonomy

Deployed on all Gen 6 watches from Fossil, Google’s Wear OS system logically ended up on the Wellness edition of the tocante, revealed last October. For its Hybrid version, Fossil keeps the design of the latter and we therefore find a steel case 44 mm wide and 11.4 mm thick, available here in three colors (black, silver and gold) and on which come to attach silicone bracelets (black, navy blue and powder pink respectively) to the standard 20 mm.

For its Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition, Fossil however abandons Wear OS and even changes display technology, since it is an e-ink screen (electronic ink) which replaces the Amoled screen of the classic version. Smaller (1.1 “against 1.3”), this one here is monochrome (grayscale), displays 240 x 240 px (218 dpi) and is found under two physical hands which are the particularity of hybrid connected watches .

Two weeks instead of 24 hours of autonomy

Although this may seem like a regression if you appreciate watches with beautiful screens that are always bigger and brighter, it is a matter of point of view, the technologies used by the Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness being above all much less greedy in energy. In fact, Fossil announces up to two weeks of autonomy for this version, while the Gen 6 Wellness is limited to 24 hours.

However, this Gen 6 Wellness hybrid is no less well off in terms of features and also benefits from automatic training detection, VO2 Max estimation, heart rate zones, control of the music, receiving messages and notifications, calendar, etc.

Technically, Fossil provides few details. We just learn that the watch is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 LE, wifi, a GPS chip, an optical heart rate and SpO2 sensor, an accelerometer and a microphone. Its water resistance remains limited to 3 ATM.

The Fossil Hybrid Gen 6 Wellness is already on the market at a price of 229 €.