Skagen Falster Gen 6 Smartwatch

Skagen is a subsidiary of Fossil that makes watches with Danish-inspired aesthetics (despite being based out of Texas). Its latest smartwatch, the $295 Falster Gen 6, closely resembles one of Fossil’s latest models, the Gen 6 (we reviewed the $329 model made in conjuction with gaming company Razer), packing most of the same hardware and features into a smaller and simpler case. It's one of the sleekest smartwatches on the market, though like the Razer X Fossil Gen 6, it's held back by unimpressive battery life and Google's uneven Wear OS platform. Ultimately, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 ($249.99) remains our Editors’ Choice among Android-compatible smartwatches for its more polished UI and advanced biometric features, while the $399 Apple Watch Series 7 is our top pick overall.

Danish-Inspired Design

At a glance, you wouldn't necessarily know that the Falster Gen 6 isn't a smartwatch. It sports a minimalist Danish aesthetic, with a flat top and smooth sides. Its 416-by-416-pixel AMOLED screen measures 1.28 inches in diameter, doesn't have any bezels, and is identical to the one on the Fossil Gen 6.

The right side of the watch (when worn on the left wrist) includes a rotating crown and two buttons just like the Fossil Gen 6, but here the crown is smooth instead of ridged. The mounts for the wrist straps are simple, thin metal bars that bend inward to form a rounded rectangular shape.

The Falster is available only in black and in a case size of 41mm. That's smaller than both Fossil Gen 6 models (42mm and 44mm), and I found that the watch looked a bit small on my wrist. When you order it, you can choose between several different styles of wrist straps, including black silicone; brown leather; and black, charcoal, or silver stainless steel mesh. You can also swap any of those out for a third-party 20mm strap.

My test unit came with the black silicone strap, which I found to be strangely frustrating to use. The outside of the strap is smooth, but the inside is covered with horizontal ridges that are about the same (but not exactly the same) distance apart as the width between the holes for the buckle. This discrepancy made securing the watch around my wrist a chore, because it forced me to use my finger to align the pin with the hole rather than just use the ridges as guides.

Inside the Watch

The watch uses the same internal components as the Fossil Gen 6, including a Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. It integrates heart rate, blood oxygen, IR presence, and ambient light sensors, along with an accelerometer, an altimeter, a compass, and a gyroscope. The watch also supports Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi, and NFC for Google Pay payments.

The Falster Gen 6 is rated for use at up to 5ATMs, which is better than the Fossil Gen 6's rating of 3 ATMs. However, it still lacks an IP rating like the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 (IP68), so it isn’t technically waterproof. It also doesn't carry MIL-STD-810G certification for shock protection. Regardless, it should be safe to swim with (unless you get the leather strap).

According to Skagen, the Falster should last up to 24 hours between charges, but based on our testing, this estimate seems a bit generous. With the always-on screen turned off, I found that the watch could comfortably last throughout the day, but keeping it on for sleep analysis without a charge first would be pushing it. Ultimately, the battery life falls a bit short compared with the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch4, both of which can last a full day with enough battery left to track your sleep overnight.

Wear OS and Fitness Features

The Falster Gen 6 runs on Google's Wear OS, just like the Fossil Gen 6. The operating system is powerful, but its interface is often awkward to use. We outline the basics below, but for more detailed information about Wear OS, check out our review of the Razer X Fossil Gen 6.

You can use Wear OS with an Android smartphone or an iPhone, but the Android-based smartwatch OS naturally integrates better with Android devices. Message notifications and media playback controls work on iOS devices through the Wear OS app, but the app doesn’t provide access to the Google Play store. That means that if you want to get new watch apps or faces from Google, you need to access the Google Play store via a browser or use the awkward Play store app on your watch.

From the watch face, swipe up for notifications, swipe down for quick settings, swipe right for Google Assistant, swipe left for tiles, and press the crown button to view your apps. The controls are fairly direct, but a few clunky elements hinder the experience. Take the separate tiles and apps sections, for example. The Tiles area offers only a handful of functions that mostly revolve around fitness features. In the apps section, all of your apps appear in a list that you can scroll through by twisting the crown, but you don't get many options to create shortcuts; you can pin your favorites to the top of the list or assign one of the watch's two buttons to launch one, but that's it. The app list’s icons and labels are a bit too small to read comfortably, as well.

For watch faces, you have a number of options. The Falster comes with several analog and digital Skagen watch faces, but most are either minimalist or whimsical. For example, many stack the hour and minute hands on top of each other, rather than placing them next to one another in a traditional configuration. For comparison, the Fossil Gen 6 offers many more classic (and, in my opinion, usable) watch faces out of the box. This is a matter of taste, of course, and you might like the Skagen's face designs more.

Your other options are to download watch faces from the Google Play store or use the Facer app. Google Play’s selection of watch faces is unimpressive and many cost about $2. Facer offers the biggest library of watch faces, but many are "premium" and are available only if you sign up for a $5-per-month or $40-per-year subscription. Fortunately, the app has some nice, free faces, too.

The selection of apps for Wear OS devices is decent, though some notable first-party apps aren't available. Google Assistant, Google Calendar, and Google Fit are all built into the OS, and you can install Google Keep and Google Translate on the watch, but there isn’t an official Wear OS app for Google Authenticator (I wouldn’t trust the third-party pay apps that offer MFA). And, while you can control smart home devices with your voice through Google Assistant, you can't do so directly from the watch's touch screen. The one exception is that Samsung offers a SmartThings app for Wear OS.

For fitness options, you can install Adidas, Calm, Nike Run Club, Strava, and a few dozen other apps, including some to track menstruation and ovulation; Google Fit doesn't offer those features natively. Rounding out the selection are Spotify, a third-party podcast client, and an oddly large number of weather apps. You won't find built-in apps for simple functions like performing calculations or taking voice notes.

Through Google Fit, the watch tracks your heart rate, blood oxygen level, and sleep, plus offers the standard selection of step-counting features and workout guides. All of this data is accessible via the Tiles section of the interface. The watch lacks the electrocardiogram (ECG) feature of the Apple Watch for monitoring heart rhythm problems and the bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) of the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 for measuring body composition.

For Minimalist Android Users

The Skagen Falsten Gen 6 offers nearly all of the hardware and software features of the Fossil Gen 6 in a simpler, smaller case. It works just as well, but still lacks the more advanced biometric capabilities of top-rated competitors. The Falsten's biggest weakness, however, is that it runs on stock Wear OS; the software is powerful, but it's also clunky to use and doesn’t offer as many watch faces or apps as we'd like. If you can look past those issues, the Falster is a stylish alternative to our Editors’ Choice winners, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 and the Apple Watch Series 7. Samsung’s One UI interface makes Wear OS on the Watch4 easier to use, while the watch itself features an innovative digital bezel and costs nearly $50 less than the Falster. The $399 Apple Watch Series 7 costs more, but Apple’s watchOS remains the most polished smartwatch platform and seamlessly integrates with iOS devices. If you like the idea of watchOS but can’t stomach the price of the Watch Series 7, consider the more affordable Apple Watch SE, which starts at $279.