Samsung's exclusivity over the Wear OS 3 platform ended a couple of months ago with the launch of the Montblanc Summit 3. But the $1,290 price tag means the watch is unlikely to find many takers. Fossil, which has an array of Wear OS smartwatches, recently announced its first Wear OS 3 wearable: the Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition. More importantly, the company confirmed that it would update its existing Gen 6 watches to Wear OS 3 starting October 17. With the OS now making its way to Fossil Gen 6 users, the company has provided more details and insights into the Wear OS 3 release for its smartwatches.

In a Reddit post, a Fossil spokesperson says the Wear OS 3 update will improve health and wellness tracking. This is because a Wear Health Services team inside Google now requires all OEMs and devices to meet a certain quality threshold. The collected data is handed over to apps more efficiently, leading to battery savings. Several other changes and improvements in Wear OS 3 deliver a better user experience, including an improved Quick Settings shade and more customization options. Unlike Wear OS 2-based smartwatches that work with Google's Wear OS app, Fossil Gen 6 users will have to use the company's companion app to track their health and wellness status and control various aspects of the watch post the update.

While the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, Watch 5 series, and the Pixel Watch are running Wear OS 3.5, Fossil is updating its Gen 6 smartwatches to Wear OS 3.2, which is the latest revision of the OS available for Qualcomm's 4100/4100+ platform. The company reaffirms that this will not cause any issues. All third-party apps are compatible with Wear OS 3.2, and there are no significant new features or changes in Wear OS 3.5 that its users will miss out on. Fossil promises to roll out the latest Wear OS release to its Gen 6 watches whenever it is provided access to the build.

The update is not without issues, though. There's no Google Assistant for any Qualcomm 4100-based smartwatches, so you won't be able to talk to Google's assistant from the smartwatch. As a workaround, Fossil has tied up with Amazon to bring Alexa to its watches. Another issue is Google Fit's incompatibility with the latest Wear Health Services release. Due to this, Fossil is not preloading the app, but you can always download it from the Wear OS Play Store once the compatibility issues are addressed. For the time being, Fossil will use its companion phone app for Google Fit syncing.

You can also continue to use your Fossil Gen 6 watch with an iPhone, but there's no Google Wallet support so you cannot pay for your purchases. There's no clear timeline from Google either on when Google Wallet on Wear OS will work on iPhones.

Fossil admits the Wear OS 3 update process is tedious since you need to initiate the download process manually. Additionally, the watch will be reset to factory settings during installation, leading to data loss. Fossil will email a special offer once you complete the onboarding and sign-up process to compensate for all the trouble.

The Wear OS 3.2 update is live for the Fossil Gen 6 in certain regions like Singapore and India, so you can start mashing that Check for updates button now.