I actually really like mine, but it does seem like they were always kinda half ass in supporting it. At least other options are round now, when I first got a Fossil it was the only one that looked like a watch which is why I jumped on it.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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My first smartwatch was a fossil and it almost made me give up on smart watches entirely. It was pretty nice for the first 6 or so months but the battery deteriorated quickly and it only lasted like half the day. I didn't even last a whole year before I gave up on it and just assumed Android smartwatches were kinda trash.
I actually got the free pixel watch 2 promo deal for preordering the pixel 8 pro thinking I could just sell it, but I decided to give it a shot and I actually really like it.
Psst... if you havent already, install GrapheneOS!
Totally would if I didn't have to have a work profile and my bootloader was unlocked.
How does a work profile work... regularily? I only use it through shelter.
You need an invasive app that can completely control it, right?
Its still so much better than ios. Thanks Google for compartimentalization
Your organization can control things only in the work profile, but it's completely sandboxed and your personal profile can't access any data there and vice versa.
About time. I liked mine for about a week then the battery went to absolute shit.
Good. They fucking sucked, and they never supported them.
We bought 2 of their watches, brand new. The gen 4 literally had like 6 months of life in it before they stopped supporting it, and apps stopped working on it.
It had abysmal battery life and performance, basically unusable.
We also had the Sport. The front fell off. Which is not very typical, I'd like to make that point. The screen kinda opened up, flopped over and ripped itself off when going to bed. We got a replacement, horrible customer service, we had to hunt down a store that had the watch in stock, and then argue with them to make them understand that we're here for a warranty replacement, and they didn't know what to do.
That watch then proceeded to live for 3 months before they suddenly cut support and new apps stopped running on it.
I had one that also had some sort of charging reliability issue, and I decided to return, so I agree it isn't a huge loss. Still, a lack of competition is usually bad in terms of prices for the rest of us. And WearOS getting even smaller means even narrower dev community. Easier to fully wall off the garden and close the OS when there are fewer and fewer people in it
Ah yes, the famous charging ring getting unglued issue.
I think they picked subpar glue for the whole unit tbh.
I've said it for years on Reddit and I will continue saying it here on lemmy. I miss Pebble.
I use a galaxy watch 4 now but while it can do some more thing it still doesn't fully match the functionality of my pebble time. So many stupid software limitations that shouldn't exist.
If the battery hadn't degraded I'd still be using it.
I've looked at fossil multiple times and they've never matched the functionality I need. No current watches really do.
I'm still using my Pebble Time. I've tried the Apple watch during my IPhone experiment, a fitbit, and a Garmin. Honestly the pebble is head and shoulders above any of them.
I upgraded from a Pebble Time to a Garmin Vivoactive 4. Quite a bit more expensive but I'm really liking it.
I'm just sad that Garmin is slowly replacing their Memory-in-pixel display in favor of AMOLED screens. MIP displays seemed to me to be the next best thing to e-ink type displays - always on with minimal battery drain.
I'll just need to keep my watch for as long as I can.
Garmin is making the best smartwatches by far and has been for a while. Iβve been through Samsung, Google, and Apple offerings and Iβm not leaving the Garmin lineup for the foreseeable future.
Yes but I'm sad they are moving away from MIP and switching to AMOLED. That said, I recently discovered Coros smartwatches and they are still using "memory LCD". Only time will tell if they'll stick to it or transition to AMOLED as many others have.
PineTime, ~25$, is the spirit child of Peeble. Its OS InfiniTime is on github. And boy that battery, I can go way past 1 week, close to 2 weeks.
Holy hell, that's cheap. I'll have to look into grabbing one to play around with.
How are you getting multiple weeks? Mine barely lasts a few days.
I have the always on screen turned off and the only way to turn it on is the button or when a notification comes in. My battery lasts almost a month.
So you have to turn it on manually? Or does it react to movement?
That might be it- my screen is configured to turn on when tilted up, too. I'll try that out.
What functionality is missing?
Not the same person, but I greatly enjoy my (now second) Pebble classic for several reasons, which I imagine some are shared between Starayo.
- Always-on Display
- Week-long battery life
- High contrast display that can be read easily in low light as well as in direct sunlight
- Simple notifications support, with quick canned replies
- physical button navigation that make the watch easy to use without needing to look at it
- Isn't obscenely large
- quick launch application shortcuts from holding side buttons
- simple media playback control that is responsive
- Doesn't attempt to be another smartphone, but rather as a local companion to your existing smartphone (doesn't thrive on individual apps, but rather companion apps to complement smartphone usage)
- Customizable and relatively simple to write applications and watchfaces for.
Unfortunately for me, fossil's watches do not match up. Looking at the gen 6, still uses an ill-suited AMOLED display that is bound to have poor contrast in direct sunlight unless the brightness is cranked so far that it will blow through the battery. Even then, the average battery life on the gen 6 is atrocious compared to most Pebble models as many reports say it can make it through one day. I'm sure by now, WearOS devices have worked out some of the kinks to make them easier and faster to use, though I am not sold on needing a personal assistant in order to do basic tasks (as Fossil markets their gen 6 smartwatch; I do doubt that this is necessary for general function).
Also, this might be controversial, but I personally feel that a device that has Bluetooth and is intended to communicate with a device that is often within ten feet of it really doesn't need to waste resources and probably become more of a privacy nightmare by including Wi-Fi, LTE, and other data communication methods (beside NFC). Furthermore, pretty much every WearOS device I have seen has had a struggle to keep battery life for more than a couple days, and everyone deems that devices that can should be praised for whatever reason. Seeing as my ancient smartwatch that does most of what these newer watches do yet can effortlessly hold a six day battery life at worst, I seriously question why newer watches that have so much compromise and are incredibly misguided as to what a complementary wearable should be are what are being developed. Not to mention that the Pebble classic on launch was $99 USD whereas one can easily find $400+ smartwatches that still have way too much compromise in comparison.
Fantastic reply. Thanks for your thoughtful post!
I have a Garmin Forerunner 55. It's light on my wrist and the battery lasts 2 weeks. I don't think it's lacking any functionality I had on my OG pebble, but it's got a few more bells and whistles.
The garmin is too expensive for a watch, but my Β£50 Huawei GT2 also has a 2 week battery life and all the features I need.
Not surprising. Their watches weren't really priced well enough for a product that has such a short lifespan. They were charging as much as an actual designer watch which would otherwise last decades, for a product whose non-replaceable battery has a lifespan of only a few years.
I can't imagine they had many repeat customers, as a result.
I had a Fossil Wear OS smartwatch, I liked it but I barely used any of its features. Basically, I'd use it to notify me of messages and then I could see whether or not to pick up my phone.
I sold it and bought a Fossil hybrid (Collider HR) and I love that thing. The battery lasts about 2 weeks and people always think it's so cool that it has physical hands.
It shows me whenever I get a message or calendar notification (or whatever notifications I want) and that's all I care about.
I haven't looked at the newer generation of watches, but I don't think I'd upgrade or anything.
I also have other Fossil stuff, like belts. They make cool stuff, but they've always been a fashion brand first before a tech brand.
If they stop making smartwatches, are there any other brands that make good hybrid, eink watches?
Also, the article just mentioned they'd stop making Wear OS devices so maybe they'll still make the hybrid watches?
Not hybrid watches but Garmin watches have a passive LCD screen that is readable under reflected light and the app is excellent, albeit proprietary.
I have a Fossil hybrid and Garmin Instinct and wear the instinct most of the time. I find the Fossil app too basic and it drains battery. I have heard about an open source app that can sync to them however.
I recently switched to using GadgetBridge with my Fossil Hybrid. It was a little annoying to set up, but it works.
That's the one, thanks! I better get to it before Fossil pulls the app. You need to extract a private key from the paired app correct?
Yes, there are a few ways to do it. You need to have logged into the Fossil app with an email/password, it didn't seem to work with "login with Google."
I used a python script that I ran on my computer that got the private key from the Fossil servers.
https://gadgetbridge.org/basics/pairing/fossil-server/
NOTE: You need to add the private key before pairing with GadgetBridge, if you add it after then it won't work.
Appreciate the pointers!
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