In January 2024, Fossil announced its retirement from the Wear OS-powered smartwatch market. The company tried for a while to become a big name in this field, but it never quite got there. Most of the firm’s latest stocks of smartwatches sold out last year, except for one in particular: the Citizen CZ Smart Gen 2. Now, this model has also sold out, marking the end of Fossil’s involvement in the segment.
Fossil is a brand primarily known for its traditional watches. It tried to make a name for itself among smartwatches as well, investing a lot of resources into it. However, the efforts did not pay off. Currently, smartphone companies seem to be the ones that do best with these wearables. The Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch devices are undoubtedly the main faces of the market, with other names seeking to stand out as well.
Citizen CZ Smart Gen 2, Fossil’s latest Wear OS smartwatch, is no longer available
Citizen, another traditional watch brand, partnered with Fossil in 2018 to launch smartwatches. The Citizen CZ Smart Gen 2, released in 2023, was one of the products of this collaboration. This smartwatch was the only one still available in Fossil’s catalog until recently. This is no coincidence, as the watch had a rather eventful launch. In fact, Citizen even had to withdraw it from the market temporarily.
Normally, products that come onto the market full of problems are “tainted” in the public’s perception. That said, Fossil has been running huge discount campaigns on its smartwatches to get rid of the remaining stock. There were models available for as low as $80. The offers seemed to be enough to convince some people to give the wearable another chance.
Availability seems to have stopped very recently
The Citizen CZ Smart Gen 2 came in two styles: Sport and Casual Unisex. As seen by 9to5Ggoogle on the Wayback Machine platform of the Internet Archive, both were available until December 25. Now, their product pages have disappeared.
Interestingly, traditional watch brands have been moving away from the Wear OS market. However, the platform is growing at a rapid pace following updates over the past few years and the growing participation of phone brands.
