Fossil announced that it will exit the smartwatch market. In the statement made by the company, it was stated that resources will be directed to “less smart” products. It can be said that the absence of the company, which has been one of the leading manufacturers of the Wear OS platform for years, will be seriously felt.
The statement sent by the company to The Verge site on the subject includes the following statements: “As the smartwatch environment has evolved significantly over the last few years, we have made a strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business. “Fossil Group is directing our resources to support our core strengths and the key segments of our business that continue to provide us with strong growth opportunities: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelery and leather goods under our own brands as well as our own licensed brands.”
This means that Fossil Gen 6, released in 2021, is the company’s last smart watch. The company will continue to offer update support for existing Wear OS watches for several years.
Fossil was one of the biggest supporters of the Wear OS platform as the smartwatch market developed
Considering what has been talked about about fossils in the last few months, this news should not be surprising. While some Reddit users reported that the company’s store employees had told them that Fossil was going out of business, others claiming to have “insider” information on the platform had claimed that the company was waiting for a new chipset. Fossil was one of the most important pioneers of the Wear OS platform at a time when the smartwatch market was still developing. It will become clear over time what impact Fossil’s absence will have as the market matures.