Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch with Speaker, Heart Rate, GPS, Contactless Payments, and Smartphone Notifications

Nice watch with a couple of issues.
Sorry, fans of the watch from that “other” company: REAL watches are ROUND. This watch is round.
I have to say, I love the style of this watch–it’s genuine Fossil, and looks sharp. I had to go with the leather band (whose dark brown color goes surprisingly well with the black watch), but I am looking at buying the steel watchband for it since I find those more comfortable. I also own an LG G Watch R in rose gold that looks nice, but the hardware is a few years old now and it’s not as snappy as it used to be. But, it is still more than capable. The Fossil is a nice change, and the black case is a nice alternative to the LG!
What I like? The buttons on the side do something, even the “stem” that can be rotated in one direction for notifications and in the other for settings. And as I said, the style of it is high quality without looking pretentious (and it’s not a ridiculous “rounded square”). There are plenty of Fossil-designed watch faces that can be installed and customized. (I like using Facer, but their app has gotten bloated and drags down the OS on any watch I have tried it on.) Apps are snappy. I don’t use the voice features, but it’s interesting that is now has a tiny speaker.
What I don’t like? Battery life is not good. Unless I need to use this a lot more to somehow “calibrate” the battery and the OS, I can’t see this lasting throughout a day. Although I admit that I was playing with the watch quite a bit right after I got it. Still, after 20-30 minutes, I don’t expect battery life to have dipped into the sub-90% range. Also, the charging pad is rather small. The LG has a nice, large magnetic base that it sits within. This is just a small magnetic charging pad that the Fossil perches on top of.
It’s a keeper, though! I’m glad I purchased this one on sale, and am looking forward to receiving the steel watch band for it.

Better Than I Hoped Based on Read Reviews
I spent a lot of time researching this watch. 👀
The reviews on the battery life made me iffy about buying it but I haven’t had an issue with that. It’s between 50-70% (depending on the watch face I use) by the time I get home (10‐ish hour day). Took it off the charger at 6:30a today. It’s 8:23p and has 33% charge. There’s all these different battery settings you can use to extend the life. I definitely had to finagle the bagel when I first got it because if I hadn’t, by the end of this review it would have been dead already.
I had a Galaxy Active. I wanted my watch to make noise and Galaxy did not. The vibration isn’t what I wanted either. I do a lot of moving at work and don’t always hear/feel my phone. This watch is loud and clear. The vibration is very noticeable.
I only used the phone on the watch 3 times. It wasn’t terrible. The conversations were short though. Most times I’m not in a setting where being Inspector Gadget is appropriate.
I didn’t like that the band is so big. I tried purchasing a 20mm band and they don’t fit. I thought maybe that would solve the issue. I guess since I have average size womens’ wrists, maybe I should have gotten the Juliana? But that’s not what I wanted 🤷🏽‍♀️ Anyway, I made an extra hole. That was a little tough, too. Which is good- the band does not tear/rip/puncture easily. 👍🏽
Someone said there aren’t a lot of watch faces to choose from. I use Facer and I’ve found plenty free faces that I like, so I guess it’s a personal preference. 🤷🏽‍♀️
I bought this fancy bumper (because it was the only one I could find that wasn’t that weird plastic that turns brown after some months and that also doesn’t impact my being able to use/see the screen) and a separate set of plastic screen protectors for preservation.
I don’t use it for the sleep tracking. I take it off at night to charge. I don’t use the GPS tracking. I don’t like to keep my location on any device. Um..in my sleep apparently I took 70 steps, so either I sleep walk or it’s really sensitive to movement. 🤭 The heart monitor seems fairly accurate (in comparison to my Galaxy).
I like the Galaxy app better than the WearOS app. I feel it could definitely be better, give more options- something. It’s very minimal.
Comes with a charging cord and…that’s it (other than the paperwork) 😄 There’s not 2 bands, like with the Galaxy.
I’m happy over all though.
🗣🗣 July 2021 Update: I haven’t had ANY issues with my watch. I thought I may have an issue due to the physicality of my job, but nope! They’ve done an update on the WearOS app and I’m glad. It isn’t 100% better, but it is 54.96% better than it was. 🤭 Everything is copastetic.

Slightly overpriced, just “slightly” because it still has a cheap-ish feel to it especially with some of the bands which you wouldn’t have expected them to skimp out on but arguably one of the best you can get for WearOS as an overall…so ultimately can’t complain and that’s why I gave it 5 stars, massive step up from other WearOS watches I’ve owned. Though the battery life is a lil underwhelming initially but I’ve been told it gets slightly better over time as the watch calibrates itself. Will update further down the line if I end up having issues with the charging ring, because those were the main concerns I’ve seen from most reviews and people who’ve owned the watch for a longer time they noted the battery life and the charging ring wearing out quickly.

Es un buen reloj es elegante y sencillo a la vez, la batería dura alrededor de 17 horas con un uso mínimo, pero con la pantalla siempre encendida. Para contestar mensajes es lo más básico siempre y cuando no estés en movimiento ya que las letras están muy pequeñas y es fácil darle a la letra que no.
La integración con Google Fit es buena ya que los resultados se pueden ver desde el teléfono. También el sensor de ritmo cardíaco es bueno.
La carga del reloj es rápida en 1 hora ya lo tendrás al 100% de carga. La pantalla tiene buena calidad el único problema que le veo es la poca duración de luz que solo son como 5 segundos y luego se apaga solo esto para ahorrar batería.