Excited about the recent announcement of Google and Samsung joining up to ‘save’ Wear OS by combining it with Tizen OS? Well, it’s time to temper down those expectations if you own a Wear OS smartwatch from Fossil because the brand has confirmed that it has no plans to update its current inventory to the new Wear platform. Which is just plain sucky on Fossil’s part.
In a move that seems shortsighted, Fossil confirmed to CNET that its current Wear OS smartwatches are not upgradeable to the new Wear platform from Google and Samsung. Fossil hasn’t stated the reasons for deciding that its current smartwatches aren’t ‘upgradeable’, so it remains to be seen whether it’s because of hardware incompatibilities or if it’s simply because they don’t want to spend the resources doing so. Hopefully, we’ll soon see a clarifying statement from Fossil on its reasons and perhaps deems it worthwhile not to abandon its customers without a valid excuse.
If you were thinking about buying one of Fossil’s current crop of Wear OS smartwatches, we’d advise you to put that acquisition on hold until new models are launching running on the Wear platform unless you don’t mind being left behind. It’s not known at this time whether Mobvoi, the other big Wear OS smartwatch maker, will follow suit or provide Wear software updates to its current batch of watches.
