Fossil Gen 5 LTE simlocked?????

TitanOne · March 14, 2022

Hello everyone!

Firstly, I apologize in advance if this topic doesn't fit in the phone's and tablets forum, but it was the next best thing in my eyes.

Now my actual question:

Does anyone know if you DO have to get an eSIM from a provider specified by Fossil for the Gen 5 LTE? (Verizon in the US iirc, Vodafone/Orange in Germany, etc.)

It DOES say so on the website and the support also told me to get an eSIM from the provider of my country. But what it says on the box and what it can actually do are two very, very different things. Support also couldn't (or rather wouldn't) tell me why I have to get the eSIM from Vodafone.

Is it just a "We know this will definitely work, get off our buns with everything else!" kind of move? Could it be some sort of exclusivity agreement?

I don't want to get into my choice of SmartWatch or my adversion to a specific provider, I just want to know if I have to bite the bullet and go with the specified provider, look for a different Google WearOS SmartWatch or if it's all just BS that marketing has constructed.

Patiently waiting for an answer

TitanOne

Donut417 · March 14, 2022

13 hours ago, TitanOne said:

Does anyone know if you DO have to get an eSIM from a provider specified by Fossil for the Gen 5 LTE? (Verizon in the US iirc, Vodafone/Orange in Germany, etc.)

My guess is the watches are designed only to run on those carriers networks. Not sure how it works in the EU. But here in the US Verizon owns certain frequencies. If a device is only designed to communicate on those frequencies then it will only work for that carrier.

TitanOne · March 15, 2022

10 hours ago, Donut417 said:

My guess is the watches are designed only to run on those carriers networks. Not sure how it works in the EU. But here in the US Verizon owns certain frequencies. If a device is only designed to communicate on those frequencies then it will only work for that carrier.

That could be as to why, but I cannot investigate further because Qualcomm's website doesn't want to cooperate at the time of writing this and I cannot figure out which 4G/LTE frequencies the SOC of the Fossil Gen 5 LTE supports.

The SOC in question is the Snapdragon Wear 3100, but of course any other sources that could tell me are hiding right now as well