Fossil Exits the Smartwatch Market

Fossil confirmed last night that it is exiting the smartwatch market to focus on traditional watches, jewelry, and other related products.

“As the smartwatch landscape has evolved significantly over the past few years, we have made the strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business,” a Fossil spokesperson said. “Fossil Group is redirecting resources to support our core strength and the core segments of our business that continue to provide strong growth opportunities for us: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own as well as licensed brand names.”

This isn’t a surprise: Fossil’s exit had been rumored for months and the firm hadn’t released a new smartwatch since 2021. And its Wear OS watches were surpassed by Samsung’s smartwatches long ago.

Last year, Fossil updated its latest smartwatches with Wear OS 3.5, and it doesn’t appear they’ll ever see the newer Wear OS 4 now. But Fossil says that it will continue to support its existing smartwatches for “the next few years.” That should give customers time to research more recent products from Samsung, Google, and others.