If you saw the announcement this morning of the new Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition watch, which is their first watch to run Wear OS 3, you might be wondering what that means on the Wear OS 3 front for the previously released Fossil Gen 6 line. I have good news – the update should start rolling out next week.

Fossil told me this afternoon that the Wear OS 3 update for the original Gen 6 is coming with the launch of the Wellness Edition on October 17th. Since both models are virtually identical on the inside, this makes a lot of sense. Actually this watch are identical in features and specifications, they just have a different appearance.

There are some things to be aware of when this big Wear OS 3 update arrives. First, it will be optional for Fossil Gen 6 owners. This is optional because you will need to factory reset your watch and then set it up again with using the newly updated Fossil companion app. If this is confusing, let me explain.

With Wear OS 3, Google is effectively ditching the Wear OS app that all Wear OS watches have used over the years for customization and limited control. Wear OS 3 requires watchmakers to release their own companion apps that run setup, tweak settings, and can even perform tasks like controlling a watch face. The same applies to Fossil and the original Gen 6. You will continue to use the Wear OS app until you install the Wear OS 3 update. Once installed, you will switch to the Fossil app. Fossil does not believe this will be a difficult transition or process. You can download the Fossil app from Google Play here.

The second thing to know is that Google Assistant won’t be included in the Wear OS 3 update. Fossil suggests that the current form of Google Assistant isn’t currently supported by Qualcomm chips and there’s nothing they can do. Everyone seems to be waiting for Google or Qualcomm to figure this out. You may remember that Samsung’s own Wear OS 3 watch only recently got Assistant support. Of course, the Pixel Watch has access too.

One last thing to note is that most of the Wellness Edition experience will join the original Gen 6 with this update, with the exception of some new watch faces. So if you’ve been thinking about upgrading to get a good feeling, you really shouldn’t.

We asked Fossil if there would be a guide to help you update Gen 6 and they told us there would be a FAQ somewhere to help or answer any questions you might have. As soon as we receive it, we will update this post.

In the meantime, get ready for a big update, Gen 6 owners. We’ll let you know as soon as it goes live.