Fossil optimises the performance of its older smartwatches by removing over 30 watchfaces

Fossil may have just announced its Gen 6 smartwatch, but it has not forgotten about the predecessors that have been left to wither on Wear OS 2. Recently, the company started distributing an update to its Gen 5 smartwatches, which comprises the Gen 5, Gen 5 LTE and Gen 5E.

The update, which Fossil has distributed through the Google Play Store, added two watch faces called Dashboard Digital and Fitness Digital. However, the update also removed a bunch of watch faces that Fossil had brought to its Gen 5 smartwatches, without any mention of their removal in any patch notes.

Unsurprisingly, all recent Fossil: Design Your Dial app reviews are negative, with people complaining about the watch faces removal. By 9to5Google's count, Fossil has removed 33 watch faces, which it outlines in its article. Apparently, this number represents approximately two-thirds of the watch faces previously available to Gen 5 smartwatches.

While Fossil has not explained its decision to fans and Gen 5 owners, it clarified the following with 9to5Google:

Fossil has, via a recent update, removed watch faces to optimize performance and free memory on our devices. The dials removed were those that represented, as a total, less than 1% of all consumer engagement with our watch faces. Fossil smartwatches still have a multitude of different possible watch face combinations for users to explore and customize to their own unique style.

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