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

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.

This is my 3rd Android/Google smartwatch, and the first one that I purchased brand new. I've been using this watch for just a little over a month now and I'm very pleased with it as a replacement for my LG Urbane2. I never had a SIM card in the LG so battery life was never an issue with the larger battery it had. I only upgraded mainly for 2 reasons, first the microphone died, and second the watch band was breaking. I purchased the LG "refurbished" for $100 and was really happy with it, but since the mic was bad and it was going to cost around$75 for a replacement band it was time to upgrade. The LG was purchased to replace the original Moto 360 I bought used because the battery was failing again. The original lasted over a year for me, the replacement fell just shy of a year. Plus it was an upgrad adding a speaker and the ability to use Google pay on the watch. I wear this watch daily and usually have at least 10% battery life left when I put it in the charger at night. Battery life in I a custom mode with everything turned on except Ok Google detection. This watch so far is just superior to both of my previous smart-watches. My only apprehension buying was to he smaller battery capacity compared to what it replaced. However this makes the watch thinner on my wrist, and for me the size is great! I love that I can use any 22mm standard band on it and change it out easily. That was a big downfall of both of it's predecessors for me requiring special bands. I am by no means a heavy user of the watch. I have been wearing a watch for about 30 years now, I never could adjust to just using my phone. This for me as an automotive technician is great because I don't have to take my gloves off or get grease all over my phone just to see who is calling or texting at that moment. For me the smart-watches are an extension of the phone, and it's great for getting notifications without having to keep the phone in my pocket.

This is my second smartwatch. My first smart watch was a Huawei First Generation. I was very resistant at first getting a smart watch because I hate the square bezel look ( Apple). My Huawei still works but after about four years of ownership the LCD screen has been developing some "artifacts" ( LCD burn in, like the old plasma TVs). I've been watching some smart watches for about 1 year now and had price alerts on them. The Fossil went considerably lower, to a price that I was comfortable with ( well under $200 ). I had to buy it. I had my eye on some Samsung Galaxy which I heard has amazing battery life but since my old watch was using Wear OS Google, I didn't feel like jumping ship to Tizen. So, the good about the watch...it is a very good looking watch. I have the metal bracelet smoke. I like the fact that the screen on the outside is just as big as my Huawei (44mm I think) which isn't big. I have a medium size wrist. It is thinner and much lighter than Huawei 1st generation. The quality of the graphics is top notch. Set up was easy, painless on my Motorola Z4 phone. It stays connected, never drops off bluetooth. I didn't buy it to use the workout functions. They could be great, I don't know but if I wanted a workout watch I would buy an ugly square Garmin or whatever. I like to get texts, answer calls on it, do some speech to text replies. It works great for that. The screen brightness I think it is great. I keep it on auto or brightness at level 2. So, now the bad. Biggest elephant in the room is the battery life. I kept it on the daily battery function with brightness on auto and most of the sensors off, but wifi and bluetooth on. I also keep the screen always on, but obviously it darkness a little after 3-5 seconds. I don't want that function off. I need to be able to see what time it is at a quick glance without needing to touch the screen, buttons, etc. I do get notifications but only messages ( WhatsApp, Viber and Messages). I don't really talk on it. I get about 15-25 WhatsApp messages per day, 20-25 texts and 3-4 Viber texts. I never check heart rate, never use GPS, NFC ( those are off). So my first day with it, the battery lasted 12 hours. My 4 year old Huawei lasts the same.🤔 I know the battery is only slightly bigger in Fossil than the Huawei but c'mon...I was expecting close to 24 hrs. Also, the graphics of watch faces don't seem to cover the whole glass area. There's a tiny portion that isn't covered. Not a big deal but my Huawei is pretty much full screen. So I don't want to say Fossil is a bad watch. Not at all, but let me summarize. If I had paid $295 ( full price) for my Huawei 1st generation, I would still be very pleased. If I would have paid $280 for the Fossil...hmm....😳....not really. Battery let's it down. At the price I paid? I am not dancing with joy but I think is ok. I am torn between three and four stars but battery life is a big deal to me and because of this, I have a hard time giving it a four. So, after a few days of playing with the setting I think I can get 16-18 hrs of battery which I guess it's ok. I turn Wifi Off, NFC off, heart monitoring off and I keep the brightness at 2 which for me is plenty. The watch is otherwise flawless. I decided to give it a four star.

Good price. Was as ordered. Expedient delivery.

The latest Gen 5 Carlyle smartwatch from Fossil is by far the most attractive & comfortable smart watch I have owned. Being light with a slimline profile, it's ideal for wearing with both casual or formal attire - something that cannot be said for some of the chunkier smart watches on the market today. It’s an elegant watch, especially when paired with the leather straps, however the straps are interchangeable, so can be easily swapped for a silicone or metal strap of some sort to suit ones style. It's also waterproof up to 30M, so you don’t even need to bother taking it off when having a shower afterwards. The watch is running WEAR 2.0 which includes all the standard WearOS features we're familiar with, however a few additional points standout on the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle: •They have provided customisable battery use management options; There are 3 pre-set modes, plus you can customise which features are turned on/off, and when. I’ve had it running with most features turned on (GPS, heart monitor, wifi, Bluetooth, etc), but generally keep “Always On” off. By the end of the day there is between 20-30% battery life left. There’s also a “Time Only” function if battery life gets critically low. •The charging disk is all multi-directional, so as long as it is in contact with the back off the watch, it will charge it. No need to line up connection points, etc which is very handy. Also charges from 0% to 100% in around an hour. •The Tiles feature is also a nice addition to the WEAR OS experience, allowing to customise which tiles are shown when swiping left. The OS only supports a handful of tiles such as Google Fit, calendar, calculator, etc so will be interesting to see how this feature develops as new tiles are added. Finally, the performance is top notch, with no glitching or latency when navigating the menus or apps, which has been a problem with other smart watches I’ve owned. It's capable of pairing and fully functional with both Android and iOS smartphones. Overall, I’m very pleased with the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle smartwatch and would highly recommend it to both seasoned smartwatch owners and new smart watch converts alike.

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.

Watch features are too good...... Watch faces awesome. Accuracy good. Looks good. ONLY NEGATIVE ASPECT IS BATTERY. Very poor in battery. It we use all features then it doesn't last for even 24 hours. We have compromise on features to have a day long battery

The Fossil Gen 5 comes with more things than expected. Though Wear OS is a particularly mediocre one when compared to others, but it does the deal here for much less. I promise not to go technical here ! Pros : 1. Good storage. 2. Better battery, lasts for 16 hours perfectly for daily use and probably more for extended mode. I prefer the Custom settings mostly to keep important stuff on my clock. 3. Touch screen is very much smooth and easy. 4. The buttons are robust to ensure quality and premium performance. 5. The fitness apps work accurately. 6. Notifications are not more clear, the text looks better and emojis are supported. Cons: 1. Slightly heavy but could be made light if you use leather or silicon strap. 2. Calling quality is just OKAY. Not that great and could be inproved. 3. Major battery drainer is the "always awake" mode. So one needs to switch it off. 4. Heart Ratw monitor must be set to 3 hours to ensure 16 hours usage time. Else, again the battery would drain. Hope this helps ❤️