FossilFossil Men's Gen 6 44mm Stainless Steel and Silicone Touchscreen Smart Watch, Color: Black (Model: FTW4061V)

I really like this watch. It looks good on my wrist, and with just enough weight to let you know it's not some cheapie. I did have some problems with keeping it connected to my smartphone but received excellent customer support from Fossil to resolve my problem. Same with the "always on" feature -- they were able to instruct me how to turn off (and keep off) the "always on" feature. I don't think I've explored all of the features on the watch, but am happy with how I am using it so far, and will continue to explore more of the options.

Reading these reviews, it is clear not everyone knows how to use their smartwatch, which means updating their device. So before giving my review, I will use my review to educate people.First, plug your smartwatch into your charger. Tap the top of the screen and swipe down. Next, tap on the gear icon. Tap the bottom of the screen and swipe up until you see "system," then tap on it to select "system." Tap the bottom and swipe up again until you see "about" and then tap on it "about" to select it. Tap and swipe up (again) and select "System updates," and install the available updates. Your smartwatch will reboot, AND you will need to repeat this process until there are no more updates.Fossil, like any Android device, is not without its partnerships. Unfortunately, that is part of why the battery may drain faster; for example, you do not need two (2) heart monitoring apps. The excellent news is Fossil had the foresight not to lock in those bundled apps, and you can uninstall (remove) them safely.To bring up the list of installed apps, quickly press the middle button. A long press will bring up Google Assistant, so be sure to press fast to bring up the app menu instead. Next, select "Play Store," and within "Play Store," swipe down to "My apps." Select the app you may wish to uninstall (remove). You can always reinstall (re-add) if you change your mind, and the system (important) apps are protected and do not have the option to remove, so you have nothing to worry about and can do this safely.In the Wear OS app (on your phone or tablet), you should also disable any notifications you do not need to be sent to your smartwatch. My phone already receives a lot of notifications, and not all of them do I need to be passed onto my smartwatch. This, too, can save battery power.Now my opinion is Fossil did an excellent job of making a smartwatch. Although this is the 1st smartwatch that I own myself, I have experienced using a few other brands (Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, Amazfit). The truth is the technology, no matter if you use Android or Apple, is not perfect. For example, if I wake up but remain lying in bed playing with my phone, it may still be counted as "sleeping." And if I try to measure my exercise inside my house, taking 100 steps may be counted as only 80 because the GPS and step counting are not perfect if you remain in a confined space. This is the same for every brand smartwatch I have used; there is a small margin of error. If you are expecting absolute perfection, the technology, in general, is not there.That said, Fossil's battery, when you disable the "always-on screen" (located in the display setting), is suitable for well over a day with all the features enabled. The smartwatch is also durably made of solid stainless steel with a sold screen. They did not go cheap on the quality of the watch. I even took a long warm, soaking bath, going a bit above the swim test, and my smartwatch works fine. Fossil also supports both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, so I have the best of both worlds.Overall, I am satisfied with my Fossil smartwatch.

Note that I bought the Very Good condition used offering for $100. Packaging was a little eye-popping, but it came without a scratch, and included the charger.It's a very stylish watch, with tons of apps and options. Stock strap is comfy, with plenty of options out there if you want to customize. Even the stock watch faces are nice! A great exercise companion, and a convenient way to check notifications without fishing your phone out constantly. Screen is bright and clear, tho I kinda wish they coulda managed less bezel. Battery life is an odd thing here- it uses less power with the always-on screen mode than it does with the tilt-to-wake. It'll definitely last the day with light use.But it definitely can drain quickly when doing things. Installing and downloading is especially heavy on battery usage. It's prbly not the most powerful watch, either, and can get bogged down if you ask too much of it too quickly.A good entry-level WearOS watch, tho.

Update #4, May 2023, finalWell, this watch is just as bad as the rest of them. Today it ceased communicating with my Samsung Z Flip 3 phone. Even the Fossil app said there were no connected devices. Numerous restarts and re-pairings did not solve anything. Removed the third party faces, no joy. Reset everything, no joy. Bluetooth was working, wifi was working, it would connect to my phone (according to the Settings menu) but the watch would not display anything other than time. No date, no widgets, nothing. There have been other anomalies over the last 5 months, most notably about once a week the watch would be at 100% in the morning (I charge overnight) and by noon it was in low battery mode, even without using the d**n thing for calls or anything else. Back on the charger for the rest of the day, using my old quartz watch (which always worked at least to let me know the time of day). This is my FIFTH smart watch, the second Fossil. It was the best yet, but still not ready for prime time. I will give it this: the audio quality for phone calls was very good, and I never had to switch to my real phone mid-call. And with the "always on" display it always had a dim readout of the time and date, so I never had to shake my arm like I had palsy to get the time. Those are, at this point, the ONLY two things that are positives about the watch. As for settings, battery anomalies, and the occasional switching off of Bluetooth on its own, I have had to demote this watch to 1 star. Too late to return it, so in frustration I smashed it. I will never waste money again on a smart watch. They are just toys and not serious devices.Here are my prior reviews of this disaster:Out of the box this watch was easy to setup with my Samsung Z Flip 3 smartphone. Load the WearOS by Google app on the phone, but then read on here. Don't do too much adjustment of settings at first because it will want to do a software update. Charge it, then let it do the update. Any customization you did will be lost with the update, so just wait on customizing. Next, another system update will probably be needed, For this one, the WearOS app will not work and your watch will be useless. The trick is to remove the WearOS app from the smartphone and then install the Fossil Smartwatch App instead. NOW continue with setting up the watch. WARNING! If you use this watch to answer your phone, then you cannot use an earpiece or car interface to do the same. By now most phones will switch over to the car phone when it senses that but I guess that little convenience slipped by the Fossill/Google programmers. I'm still not sure about that. I am still in the return period and that issue may be a deal-breaker for me. I like the watch, but the interface on the phone, the very slim face selection, and the car interface all make this software look several years old. Hence the deduction of 2 stars. I've had other smartwatches that had better options and a good car phone interface, all android styles, so I know this can be better.Update #2: Either a phone or watch update has corrected the car/watch issue. In the car the phone reverts to the car's audio system and goes back to the watch when the car is off. Like it should.Update #3: The heart rate measurement does not work well. A few counts off is expected, but mine regularly 15 counts high or more. Fortunately I do not need to know this info, so it is just an observation. But if you really need a heart rate monitor, this may not do the job for you. I have taken this feature off the dial face.