The Wear OS ecosystem is slowly getting better, but still, aside from Samsung and Google, there’s not many options to choose from. Fossil was one of the biggest ones in the segment, making not only smartwatches under its own brand, but also under several subbrands such as Skagen, Diesel, and Michael Kors. It seems like now is the end of the line for Fossil smartwatches, as the company has just announced that it’s not making any more of them.

Fossil has announced that it’s exiting the smartwatch business and thus redirecting its resources towards its other products: regular watches, bags, wallets, and jewelry. This means that the Gen 6, released all the way back in 2021, will be the last smartwatch made by the company. The decision also extends to the company’s many subbrands as well. There was supposedly a Gen 7 in the works, which would’ve used the latest Snapdragon Wear chip, but with this announcement, that product (if it was real) is effectively dead. Fossil has added that it will keep updating and supporting current smartwatches, like LG did when it pulled out from the smartphone market, so you shouldn’t be cut off from updates as a result of this decision.

Jeff Boyer, COO of Fossil, said that “as the smartwatch landscape has evolved significantly over the past few years, we have made the strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business,” going on to add that “Fossil Group is redirecting resources to support our core strength and the core segments of our business that continue to provide strong growth opportunities for us: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own as well as licensed brand names.”

Fossil is a company that kept making Wear OS smartwatches even through the ecosystem’s hardest times, so it might come as a shock for some that the company is pulling out right as the ecosystem is seeing a resurgence. Then again, that business was probably struggling, and the company is making a lot more of a profit from its luxury goods. Fossil was also apparently waiting on a Snapdragon chip that never actually released and had apparently already downscaled its smartwatch section considerably. The company was also absent from CES 2024.

Fossil will be missed, but also, Android phone owners can still get a Galaxy Watch or Mobvoi TicWatch.

Source: The Verge