The image is from the image from the marked water.
The Fossil Gen 6 watches will soon be available from Amazon.
The photo was taken by Victoria Song.
The upgrade to Wear OS 3 won't arrive for several months, despite Fossil launching two new watches at the Consumer Electronics Show. Fossil snuck in a new feature for its Gen 6 watch called AmazonAlexa, to take the sting out of the wait. You will have to wait for "coming soon." Hopefully before Wear OS 3.
The update will come in the first half of 2022. This is consistent with what Fossil told The Verge in a CES briefing, which said that the Gen 6 devices would be available early this year. Fossil sent me two things, the Skagen Falster 6 and the Fossil Gen 6 watch, and there is a little something for the Amazon. You won't bring up the voice assistant if you tap it. You will just see a message.
Between coming soon, early this year, and the first half of this year, it is anyone's guess. It is not uncommon to see companies hedge on timelines, like Douglas Adams, and watch self-set deadlines whoosh by. If everything goes well, it is likely that the compatibility of Amazon's voice assistant will arrive before Wear OS 3. The Wear OS 3 upgrade will be up to Google. The mid-to-late 2022 timeline hasn't budged for both Fossil and Google.
It might seem odd that Fossil would tease someone if it wasn't ready yet. The most likely reason is to give everyone something to look forward to while waiting for Wear OS 3, which could arrive in a few months or a whole year from now. Fossil told The Verge that the timing of the Gen 6 sales did affect them, but that the Gen 5E sales seem to be going strong. It makes sense that Fossil would highlight the compatibility of their product.
It is a win for Fossil. Customers don't have a say in which voice assistants come with their watches. Apple Watches are only compatible with the Apple OS and are not tied to the Google Assistant. The new Galaxy Watch 4 has yet to be officially released, but you will be able to use the new assistant, called Google Assistant. The Venu 2 Plus is one of the watches that you can connect to your phone's assistant on. Others hook you up with a proprietary assistant, and that is not a good time.
Right now, the only one that offers any sort of choice is Fitbit. You had the option to use either of the two assistants. You could only do one of them. While there is an Amazon device on my review units, it doesn't stop me from using the same device on my phone as well. There are few official details, but the best is not on the wrist. Fossil's choice in assistants or even the option to use more than one is a smart move. It would be better if it was here already.
