Fossil Gen 5
The most high-tech Fossil yet.
The Fossil Gen 5 blends into whatever you’re wearing or doing quite admirably. Its fully circular display is large at 44mm so it looks quite bulky on small wrists, but it means you can easily see the display at all times with minimal hassle.
The watch we were sent had a black silicon strap, which we’ll admit feels a little cheap and basic to the touch. However, it does the job well enough. For the same price, you could get a stainless steel strap or leather version – both of which we’d suspect the average user would favor.
The Fossil Gen 5 has three buttons on the side. There’s the larger middle button which is a rotating crown for easily scrolling through options or the apps menu.
In addition, there are two other buttons on either side of it that can be set as shortcuts. By default, one goes straight to the Fossil app while the other activates Fossil’s Category setting, which tweaks the style and look of your watch at the touch of a button. We’d suggest immediately changing these around to more practical options such as Google Pay or Google Fit.
The Fossil Gen 5’s display is the most eye-catching thing about it. It’s bigger than most at 1.28 inches with a resolution of 416 x 416 and a pixel density of 328ppi. It’s consistently sharp to look at, although we did find bright outside light made it trickier to see, with glare being an issue.
Besides being bigger than some smartwatches at 44mm (the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 for example can be had in a 40mm size), it’s also quite thick at 12mm. On a small wrist, that makes a noticeable difference and means the Fossil Gen 5 doesn’t lend itself to more delicate fashion requirements.
The Fossil Gen 5 uses the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, an unusual choice among Wear OS watches but a good one as it means extra features you won’t find elsewhere. This includes more battery modes (that genuinely extend battery life), along with extra processing power, helped along by a generous 1GB of RAM.
The Fossil Gen 5 has everything the budding gym or outdoor enthusiast would likely want.
Its heart rate monitor regularly tracks your heart rate with the option of activating it manually via Google Fit. There are slight discrepancies compared to the likes of the Apple Watch 4, but we didn’t find it too vast a difference. It’s more a cautionary reminder that nothing can quite beat a chest strap monitor.
Elsewhere, the built-in GPS is suitably effective and never skipped a beat in our tests. The silicone strap variety also means you won’t have to worry about getting sweaty, although we’d suggest having a replacement strap ready for smarter occasions.
The Fossil Gen 5 is one of the best Wear OS smartwatches out there at the moment. That doesn’t mean it’s flawless, but it offers a decent battery life and plenty of features that should keep Wear OS fans happy.
Jennifer Allen