Fossil updates the Gen 5 smartwatch with sleep tracking and more fitness features

Fossil has released a new update for the Wear OS Gen 5 smartwatch that adds a variety of features to the watch that is not part of the standard Wear OS, including sleep and VO2 max tracking.

Most of the new features Fossil adds here can be categorized as improvements to activity tracking, with an update promising better real-time fitness tracking (such as heart rate, speed, distance, steps, and calories) at half the power consumption by unloading. These tasks of the main processor to the QCC1110 shared processor. Fossil has also added sleep tracking — a missing feature so prominent that the company has an FAQ page about it - and VO2 max tracking for your overall cardio fitness level.

Fossil has also updated its battery saving mode, allowing users to create custom profiles for specific tasks and automatically prompting them to activate “extended mode” to help ensure a full 24 hours of battery life per charge. The improved battery mode setting is also a key part of how Fossil enables sleep tracking on this one-year-old watch.

Lastly, Fossil added an updated Phone app, which adds new tiles for quick access.

While many of these features are offered to competitors such as the Apple Watch or Fitbit smartwatches, what stands out the most here is that Fossil is adding them on its own, rather than Google pushing these updates across the Wear OS ecosystem. Compared to Wear OS's planned fall update — which includes faster app launches and a new weather app — the Fossil update feels a lot more ambitious in scope, especially considering that it works on older hardware.

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The new feature will be rolling out now in the Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch.

Keywords: gen 5 fossil, gen 5 fossil smartwatch, fossil gen 5 sleep tracking, fossil gen 5 fitness