Fossil has started rolling out the Wear OS 3 update to its Skagen Falster Gen 6 smartwatches. The only catch is that doing so removes many watchfaces that were previously available — yet another factor you’ll have to weigh when deciding whether to upgrade to Wear OS 3.
Upgrading the Skagen Falster 6 to Wear OS 3 removes a bunch of watchfaces
Fossil is rolling out Wear OS 3 to another brand, but it still has the same issues... and then some.
Fossil is rolling out Wear OS 3 to another brand, but it still has the same issues... and then some.
is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter. She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
The disappearing watchfaces were first noted on Reddit (via 9to5Google), and The Verge was able to confirm that the number of available Skagen watchfaces dwindles from roughly 20 to 5 once you upgrade. This might not faze some people, but fashion is one of Fossil’s strengths as a smartwatch maker, so it’s a little disappointing to see.
Otherwise, Wear OS 3 on the Falster Gen 6 is very similar to what you’ll find on Fossil’s newly released Gen 6 Wellness Edition. That makes sense given that they have the same hardware under the hood. This version of Wear OS 3 isn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s quite similar to what you’ll see on the Pixel Watch, except with Fossil’s various battery-saving modes and minus the Fitbit integration.
There are a few things to keep in mind, however. You’ll have to download a separate Skagen app once you upgrade and delete the old Wear OS app from your phone. This has been true of all Wear OS 3 watches thus far, including the Montblanc Summit 3 and the Gen 6 Wellness Edition. It’s a little curious that Fossil is choosing to put out a separate app for Skagen, but that’s likely to make things less confusing.
Alexa is the virtual assistant instead of Google Assistant here
It’s also missing Google Assistant, which remains absent from non-Samsung and Google Wear OS 3 watches. Fossil lets you use Alexa instead, but this is a reason to withhold upgrading if your entire smart home is built around Google Assistant, for example.
The upgrade is optional, and don’t worry if you don’t see it on your watch just yet. Keep an eye out for updates, and you should see a notification pop up on your watch. Or you can check by heading over to Settings, scrolling down to Systems, and tapping About and, finally, System Updates.
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