Fossil bids farewell to smartwatches as inventory disappears from its website

Fossil, a significant player in the Wear OS smartwatch scene during its earlier years, has officially exited the market. The move comes after the company sold off all its remaining Wear OS smartwatch inventory (as spotted by Droid Life), meaning that if you're searching for a Fossil smartwatch on their website, in most cases you won't find any available.

This decision follows Fossil's official announcement in January, where they framed the move as a way to refocus energy onto their core business segments: traditional watches, jewelry, and leather products. While Fossil watches may no longer operate on Wear OS, the company has stated it will continue supporting its existing smartwatch models with updates over the next few years.

The reasons behind Fossil's decision are multi-layered. Since 2021, Google has focused on revitalizing the Wear OS platform in partnership with Samsung. This included the launch of Google's own Pixel Watch in 2022. While these efforts have shown success, other Wear OS manufacturers — like Fossil — have found themselves on the sidelines. It's unclear whether Fossil's smartwatches will receive the much-anticipated Wear OS 4 update, since making the move away from the market seemed like the logical next step.

Google's handling of Wear OS during its revival has left something to be desired, and many believe that prioritizing the Samsung partnership may have inadvertently contributed to the current situation. It's possible that a more inclusive approach that helped established Wear OS brands transition to newer versions of the software could have created a more robust smartwatch ecosystem, instead of creating more fragmentation. It's a puzzling decision that may be showing its fruits as we speak.