Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Smartwatch: A Smarter Watch
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Follow Me On Twitter: / mikeobrienn
Fossil added a friendly little voice assistant named Alexa, you might have heard of her, and this infinitely increases this watch’s capabilities. From setting timers, to asking about the weather, or even asking who the tenth president was. This watch can now become a truly smart watch
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Please comment below with any questions you might have. Thank you all for watching! I appreciate you!
ADDITIONAL REVIEW NOTES:
Hey, I’m Mike and this is the Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid smartwatch. As I said, this watch has well, I’ll just call her Alex for this video, but it has Alex on it and so now we can actually get incredible functionality out of a hybrid smartwatch!!
PHYSICAL DESIGN
INTERFACE TOUR
VERY customizable watch faces
FEATURES
Step tracking
HR tracking
Notifications
time/date
Alexa
Workout tracking
Alarm/Timer/Stopwatch
Music control
Find phone
Weather
Blood oxygen
Sleep tracking
DND
ACCURACY TEST
Disclaimer: This video is purely based on my experiences, research, and opinions. You and only you are responsible for your actions. I made this channel to advise viewers and I truly hope to help you all out. I love making these videos and connecting with my viewers!
This channel is monetized via UA-cam ads as well as some affiliate links. If a purchase is made after clicking the link, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to the buyer. Thank you all for watching!
I wish more companies would make hybrid watches.
I don't think they sell as much
Garmin is going to make a Hybrid Instinct soon.
The Garmin hybrids (spec wise, I havent bought one yet) are a hell of a lot better (they're at least independently rated for swimming) ; and their new Instinct Crossover got a great review from DC Rainmaker. I prefer the more classic look of the Vivomove Style, so I'm holding out hoping a new version gets released soon that at least adds watch hands that glow in the dark (really have no clue why they left that out originally).
Not a lot of people would want to pay more for less. Back at the e-ink phone sales.
Like none statistically.
@@OriginalGabriel I love my fenix 5x it's getting old but that's a great example of great battery life for a lot of features.
I have a previous version fossil hybrid and absolutely love it. It does everything I would want a smart watch to do, lasts much longer, and is easier to read, and is way better priced.
I have an even older much more limited skagen. Don't like it as much, but love that it was titanium. You barely notice wearing it. Wish fossil would make a titanium version.
Well said, and now with Alexa, it can do wayyyy more!
I have one too, but currently in a drawer due to two drawbacks. Condensation inside and it’s hard to read on notification. I had this condensation issue as soon as I get that. I sent it back to the seller with their instruction for the condensation issue, but it returned by customs in their country. I live in New Zealand the seller is from Europe. Since sending to the seller costed a bit high side, I might just keep it in my drawer. eInk technology is not very good for ageing eyes at least for hybrid watches in my opinion. I could read with good lighting, but could barely read on most of times. I think display with backlighting would be much better for anyone with ageing eyes. I am happy with my Scanwatch Horizon
@@bbeckers24 3
@@MikeOBrienMedia do this watch has any phone call feature
Design is cool, Alexa fine, battery fine, the rest.... no comment. I own this one (silver version) - just to say. I would say it is less flexible than the good old Pebble watch (owned). No apps as example, limited customisation, the app on Android is looking more like an advertisement app - functionality minimal. No payment system, sensors extremely inaccurate (pulse is fine somehow... but oxygen - I should be zombie according to numbers). I bought this one thinking to partially replace my TicWatch Pro 3 - I like the design of Fossil. But... no.... The workout tracking can synchronise only with Google Fit, no Strava, no other app. No GPS of course. No swimming... no smart. It is just showing you notifications and if phone is close to you - there is Alexa build in... That's it. At 200+Euro there should be something smarter inside.... Jut to add - removing notifications is not removing those from phone... sometimes it could be plus... but it should be optional. And it has mic - but no speaker - so again - no way to talk when driving... or on bike. Why there is no good hybrid watch on market? Fossil was quite close to create something amazing - but I think we would have to wait longer for something handier. Fossil Gen 7????
What I like about this kind of smartwatches is the discretion you get with it. Had three display smartwatches (a Galaxy watch, an LG watch and a third one I can't remember right now) and never liked the toyish look of it. I mean you could choose whatever watchface you wanted, it always looked cheap. And I don't need it being able to answer texts or emails from my wrist. I want to be notified when a text or mail come in on my phone discretely, via vibration, no blinky-blinky, no sound.
Then it's nice to have a timer/stopwatch in it, maybe some health sensors and a workout tracking from time to time, that's it. Don't need more. And I want that to look as close as possible to a traditional watch.
Surprised how folks forget Pebble popularised smart watches before Apple came along
Pebble was bought to erase them from the market. Still have Pebble
The watch gets even better if you downgrade the app to V4.7. It gains a lot of functionality this way, more apps, more intuitive navigation and more customisational options. The music app also becomes a lot more functional. Only the main menu becomes a tad less pretty.
How does it change the music app?
Is this still the case currently?
I don't think 4.7 works anymore
I don’t want Alexa in my life…at all.
Wish Apple made nice looking traditional design watches. Getting bored with the square design. But best experience for iPhone I guess.
This watch works with iPhone as well, but I see where you are coming from. I wish Apple made some different shapes too
Was walking in the mall and saw this at the fossil store. And I knew it was the answer to both aesthetic and functional needs
Congrats on gettin' hitched! Great watch, first one I actually would consider from Fossil. Looks great!
Thank you! It's been a long time coming. I wanted to get married in 2020 but that wasn't exactly a great time for large gatherings
@@MikeOBrienMedia Well as they say, better late than never! May you two have a terrific life together 👍
I own a previous Fossil hybrid as a secondary watch. It’s very nice but I have trouble reading the e-ink in many lighting situations. Adding Alexa was a stroke of genius by Fossil!
Is it be readable in dark?
@@vidhyachan6494 it has a backlight
@@kiwisoup hey, can you share some more details, on how that backlight can be activated? I dint find any.
@@NiteshJha20 Tap the side of the case couple times. The backlighting makes the face easily read in the dark.
Agree 100.0%. Just sent Fossil a suggestion to add initiating/responding to texts due to the added microphone.
I hope they keep improving these E-ink hybrids as they’re not quite there yet but they have the promise of giving great battery life while just focusing on the most important features. If it could offer Google assist and Siri then even better… plus the mix of mechanical mixed with digital navigation looks like a pleasing interface.
I heard this watch have a lot of issues
@@Costar1982 yeah, clearly the e-ink isn't good enough yet but there have been many improvements in recent years. Especially since other companies have managed to squeeze into an industry that Amazon had a stranglehold of with their cheap Kindles. I certainly wouldn’t buy this watch but I don’t need a lot of the onscreen features that smart watches have. I don't want to look at detailed exercise info on the small watch screen. Just basic info on a screen that looks nice, is easy to read and a watch with a long battery life. I'm guessing that most people don't get the value out of their overpriced smartwatches so a new company has to demonstrate to people why less is more.
If only the app experience wasn't terrible.. I moving away from the hybrid purely because I was happy with the watch and they changed key features that made it less useful. Multiple times they updated the app and wiped my settings completely. They understand watch design and produce beautiful pieces, but have a long way to go in software!
Fossil just released an update that corrected many changes in the app. I've noticed Fossil is fully committed to these watches as we can expect more updates soon. Also tracking running & walking is very accurate compared with the GWs in distance & route mapping.
This is a hybrid & not smart, but that battery life is awesome. I'm getting over 2 weeks with the previous gen.
I have a Skagen Jorn HR Hybrid, essentially the same watch as the previous Fossil Hybrid HR. Complaints about the glass fogging in humid environments (North Carolina) and the e-ink display fading over time are spot on. Hopefully, they have fixed these issues. If not, my next watch will be a Withings or I'll go full smartwatch.
Disregard my last comment- they all fail over time sad
Honestly I wish more brands took this direction because I love the philosophy but the execution pissed me off more than once and I wish I wasn't stuck with this only model. I've had two Hybrid HR samples so far, the first one had one of the buttons randomly popping off the casing and the one I have right now just lost a spring from the back and now I can't charge the battery anymore (I could say its days are literally counted), plus condensation and again the same button as the first I owned gets stuck when clicked. I guess I could give this 6gen a try, for it's been necessarily re-engineered as a different product, but I guess I can't get the guarantees I need by reading and watching feature reviews
Congrats on your marriage!
Great video too!
Thank you!!
Another great video on smartwatches! I love your comparison vids and the fitness band one you just posted is really good. Keep up the awesome work and congrats on the marriage I assume that was recently 👍🏻🥳
Thank you so much for your kind words! And you are correct, I am recently married! Thank you :)
@@MikeOBrienMedia Oh awesome, well again congrats to you both.
Hi Mike! Would you say that this one is "better" than the Withings Scanwatch? I'm looking for an hybrid and those are my best choices. After watching both your vids, I'm still not sure. Maybe you can help me?
Thanks Mike seems like it's one of the best proper hybrids on the market at the moment. Agree, the inclusion of Alexa was a great idea and helps iPhone users get around the lack of Siri support- but with a great battery.
Congrats on getting married! What watch did you wear? Lol
Great question! I actually wore an analog Fossil watch that she gave me for my birthday about five years ago, when we were just dating
I’ve still got my old original Hybrid. It doesn’t even have the E-ink display or hr monitor. Needs a coin battery too! Last 6 months tho
Wish the central knob was rotating. This would make the option selector much easier and smoother
I'll be honest...the only reason why I use a smartwatch is to make grocery shopping easier when I don't want to pull out my phone and maneuver a shopping cart that may or may not have a mind of it's own while trying to avoid people who don't know aisle etiquette. 😂. The Alexa functionality in this is cool though
Hi! Is this specific watch you uses the Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid Machine FTW7068?
Now if they made this in under 40mm case I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Great video, perfect timing I was just looking for a hybrid smartwatch and the Alexa feature is very interesting but can you choose the language of Alexa?
Would you ever consider making a video on the Pebble watches? Yes, they've been discontinued for quite some time now, but I'd love to hear what you think of them with the Rebble service, as well as giving your thoughts on the community that surrounds them. Great video as always!
I still use my pebbles often and I still get great battery life and functionality out of them. Honestly some of the best Smartwatches out there.
My pebble battery died a long time ago (the thing is almost 8 years old). I loved the damn thing and the only smartwatch I liked as much was my Gear S3 that replaced it.
I've paid for more wearables since and have buyers remorse every time, so until something comes out that is a good day-to-day experience that doesn't need to be charged every night I'm gonna avoid the whole category.
I'd be 100% on board with hybrid watches if the battery was replaceable like a normal watch. If it's 80% watch and 20% smart tracking device thats a bare minimum expectation since watches are not disposable devices as they don't get outdated (well unless our planets orbit changes...which we'll have bigger problems to worry about anyway lol)
I've actually never owned a Pebble, but I do quite want one. Its cool to see that other people still use them and/or like them!
Both of the pebbles I owned stopped working years ago. The second one was a replacement that was sent to me by the company which was awesome but then they just stopped turning on one day. I was a die hard fan of Pebble from day one.
Congratulations. Now she can benefit from all of your extra electronic doo-dads. 👩❤💋👨
Thank you! Yeah, I have her on the "Mike O'Brien Phone Plan" - aka, I give her a phone after I review it and then I take it back about a year later when I need the trade in value for a new one to review, and she gets it after the review :)
This is a beautiful watch! Makes me wanna trade in my galaxy watch
This watch is very impressive. Garmin's are nice too but this offers much more functions and much nicer display. Im interest if they will added gps next time
Who cares..!!!😏we hav Amazfit
What's the possibility they add Google assistant support later and voice support for answering texts?
Could you please make a comparison between the new and the old HR Fossil Hybrid Smartwatch?
Can you control your smart home with Alexa?
I can't stand that all smartwatches are so focused on health stuff. All I care about is time, music control, notifications, and maybe the occasional timer. It's just so annoying
Dount forget texting and watching movies on the job lol
YAYEEEE!!! Now both Google and Amazon can know more about me than my own mother! Yayeeeeee!!!!!!!
Have you seen the Redmi Watch 4 and the Zeblaze Thor Ultra? At $100 point they're absolutely amazing. And can do more than most $300 watches.
What kind of glass is installed there - a regular tempered glass or a sapphire?
My boyfriend gifted me this watch but it won't pair to my phone it only says "can't launch app" when I press the middle button, any advice? :/
I'm looking to buy something to track my swimming workouts, but from what I've heard this watch won't do well with those. Can someone help me out please? I wanna spend somewhere around $150 but can't seem to find anything worthwhile
We need LESS Alexa in our lives, not more. Can't believe that some people would wear a watch with "Alexa" printed on the dial!
Heavy is good so you don't forget it's there. That's why Apple watches get scratched so easily. ;)
Mike knows how to do reviews. Awesome job man
I'm curious if you think this is the best hybrid smartwatch so far or if there's still another older one you like better?
It has SP02 now which was a deal breaker for some on the previous gen
Huawei GT2Pro and GT3Pro battery goes on for 10-14 days
True and garmin has some impressive battery life as well
I would have bought it right away if it had google assistant
No alarms? What kind of smartwatch does have a timer, stopwatch, and no alarm??
I really appreciate the quality content you put for us viewers before buying......but a small questio I wanted to as is if you could give me a review or atleast reply on how it's holding on to.... because I heard many gen 6 hybrids have lost their eink screens or their arms froze... so I just wanred to know how well thw watch is holding on to....thank you so much in advance and as usual lovely content!
I like the idea of a hybrid smartwatch but I'm not really interested in the analogic part; I have real watches for that certainly not Fossil group products, just gimme more battery and all the features of a Smartwatch.
It's like the e-ink phones, good Idea but it must be cheap ASF.
That's the issue people want everything for less, not less for more.
There were condensation problems with gen 1, wonder if they fixed it?
I bought it just to try it out. Is not for me. Notifications are too small and cumbersome to read. Is tethered and completely dependent on the phone app. Nah went back to my Apple Watch. Looks cool though , another gadget for paperweight. And Alexa doesn’t work w/o your phone next to it and the fossil app running
Genuine leather is still leather but barely. Full grain leather is what people think of first when someone says, "it's made of leather". Genuine leather is made from the scraps of full grain leather usually. It's ground up, glued together in sheets and bound together. Usually a top paint/correction coat is put on top with a "grain" imprinted to make it look good. It's barely a step above pleather. Plastic leather. Get a real band for it and it will last. Genuine leather splits and looks hideous after a few months.
People keep saying that it is owned to keep track of their health, I own smartwatches just for the option to turn the phone ringer off, and have the freedom to cancel and see who is calling with a flick of a wrist. Phone ring makes me panic and gives me anxiety. Of course I benefit from other features but this is my best
Sad it’s not great with workouts and analytics. If it did, it would be perfect
It's still really dumb that I need to push three buttons (middle, up, middle) to get to my notifications instead of one (just the middle) as the old software had it. I barely ever use my smartwatch for anything else.
How to buye? There is no one in Amazon or EBay.
Sometimes I want to use my Apple watch… anyone know how to power off the hybrid (which is paired to my iPhone) and use my Apple?
Great review and all your videos have pointed me in the direction to purchase this watch, however I'm curious how the size will look on my wrist... Do you know how big your wrist size is?
I wish Mike had done a long-term review of this watch. Like, if it's worth buying one in 2024.
I cant seem to see any difference chnaging Notification FONT....
Hi Mike
Thanks for the detailed review
Just wanted to know one thing does this wastch supports phone calls? Can i ans phone calls from watch ?
Hey, I have a Question: when you use Google Maps Navigation, does the Watch tell you where to go next?
Considering buying one but little confused about the dial colour is it brown or black coz it's looking brown on my screen?
Am I just missing some inside joke that I didn't catch or does he keep calling it Amazon "Alex" instead of Alexa?
If people are watching the video with high volume it could accidentally activate amazon alexa if he says "alexa" as it is voice activated
Where can i buy this..... Can someone give a link??
The controls are cumbersome, like the media controls for example - i would rather put my hand into pocket and press one button on my phone to set volume up, its also much faster. So sure the controls are there, but would you use them? I certainly would not. For me absence of NFC would be dealbreaker, i pay only with my watches these days.
Im coming back to this video and wosh they made more
Does anyone know if there is a hybrid smart watch with a physical seconds hand? My wife is a doctor so a seconds hand would be useful for checking pulses.
Their BS waterproof rating keeps me away from them. It's rated at 3ATM (so, you can't even shower with it), but they say you can swim with it. I asked them about that, and they said "we came up with our own testing, and found that you can swim with it) ... gotta love self-verification from a company known to have internal fogging, and poor QA.
Hello sir
I am not crazy about alexa and I don't need it and there is a major price difference between gen 6 and the previous gen and I heard that the previous gen got a update so the software is same for the 2 watches so should I just get the previous generation please suggest 🙂🙂🙏🙏
The impressive watch doesn't matter much when the app to pair with your phone SUCKS so much
I think I'm going to get one of these as my first smart watch while waiting for a ticwatch 4. I'm running Android 10. Been putting off the Android 11 update for a while. Any recommendations on whether the software for the fossil 6 would be better on Android 10 or 11?
Look right we on android 13 get with the times android 13 will not kill you 😃
Thanks for the review there's a ring-my-phone feature as well which will ring the phone and on the app there is a find-location-of-the-watch feature which is pretty cool.
I bought a Fossil full smart watch because it actually looks like a normal watch. Metal face and band and all. Might grab a hybrid tho for the fancier occasions
my first gen watches got screen burnout after a year :(
So... I'm a Galaxy Gen4 watchmen now 😅
Does it supports the Arabic language in notification?
Is the accuracy of the step counter good without any gps turned on?
Bit ridiculous their hybrid has a voice assistant but the full Gen 6 doesn't 😞
see pea ah
Great review Mike, is it possible to do a review of another hybrid watch - Sequent 'Elektron HR 2.2' thanks in advance.
Are you having issues with notifications? I got it for my iphone se 2022 and its connection range is only about 10 feet and notifications randomly stop working until i restart the phone and watch
Hey Mike, will you be doing a review of the just released Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Edition? looks pretty interesting.
0:03 Pebble was pretty popular then. No issues with battery life. I still wear my pebble time
connection issues are an absolute no go and dealbreaker
Hello, Mike O'Brien,our company is a smart watch company, can you review our company's smart watches, do you have any requirements for reviewing our smart watches?
Look at his about page.
No screen touch.. Thays the main drawnack
Please, do you know if it is possible to turn off bluetooth in this smartwatch?
Again a great review. One question, I had the previous generation Fossil hybrid, and one issue which I faced was that the Weather widget on the watch will not sync realtime with my iPhone. It will always be couple of hours behind and even after syncing, it will not be corrected. Does this watch has same issue?
I'm loving hybrid watches.
Is fossil gen6 hybrid smartwatch considerably better than the older fossil hybrid hr? Is the price difference between the 2 really worth it?
Is the bleaching and condensation fixed? I really like my old Fossil Hybrid but the bleaching thing disappointed me.
Can you accept/receive call with this watch?
I'm a strange person. I need the digital time visible all the time. Looks like they again didn't enable that.
Also, I used the app of the original fossil hybrid watch, it was terrible.
Amazon Alex, is that Alexa's brother?
can you add a crypto displaying widget on the fossil watch?
Where did you bought yours ? Cause the machine smoked one is sold out on their website and i dont really find any other website selling them...
They're no longer in production and abandoned now. Seems that the issue was lots of software bugs and early failures.
@@peoplez129 thanks! i ended up taking a citizen hybrid, they use fossil software with a citizen watch look :)
Yes of course. I certainly did know the square root of pi.
I was interested in the looks, capabilities and batttery life....then I saw "ALEXA" on it. Gross.
Buy the older version. It’s basically the same minus alexa
Why do all these hybrid watches have to be so massive? What's wrong with 38mm or under. Let alone the thickness
can't see the screen
Fossil is weird with watch design
How long works analog Time when battery is empty?