One of the things that has cemented the Fossil Gen 5 as our favorite Wear OS watch for months is its battery life. I’ve had no issues getting the Fossil Gen 5 to last much more than a day on a charge. Part of the reason the watch can last so long is because of Fossil’s custom battery modes.
A total of four custom battery modes are available on the Fossil Gen 5, and they let you completely customize which sensors are and aren’t turned on throughout the day. Daily mode keeps everything on — always-on display, location, NFC, you name it; Extended mode only turns on essential features when you need them; Time-only mode only displays the time and nothing more; and Custom mode (my favorite) lets you turn on and off any sensor on your watch. For instance, I never use Google Pay on my watch, so I keep it turned off so it doesn’t mess with my battery.
At CES 2020, Fossil told Android Authority that it’s bringing these custom battery modes to all its Snapdragon Wear 3100-powered smartwatches this week. That includes the Fossil Sport, Puma Smartwatch, Kate Spade Scallop Sport, Diesel Axial and Fadelite, Michael Kors MKGO, and a super secret smartwatch that has yet to be announced.
The update should be rolling out today. If you don’t have it yet, be sure to keep checking through next week. To check for an update on your Wear OS watch, go to Settings > System > About > System updates.
Not every Fossil or Fossil-adjacent watch has great battery life, but perhaps these custom battery modes will help. Good stuff, Fossil!
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