Best Buy has started to accept trade-ins of Wear OS smartwatches for the first time including the original Pixel Watch and select models from Fossil.
Smartwatches, unlike their traditional counterparts, don’t last forever, and that’s especially true of some of the earlier generations of Wear OS watches. However, for the most part, upgrading has meant getting stuck with or recycling your old watch as trade-in options were non-existent and value just didn’t really hold. But, suddenly, there’s a solid option available.
Best Buy has recently opened up trade-in offers for select Wear OS smartwatches, most notably the original Pixel Watch. Google’s first-generation Pixel Watch can now be traded in through Best Buy for the sequel or another model. The Google Store has offered trade-ins for the first generation for a few months now, but it’s great to have the option at Best Buy too.
For the base Pixel Watch, Best Buy will give you $80, a little less than the Google Store.
Further, and much more surprisingly, Best Buy is also now making trade-in offers on select Wear OS watches from Fossil Group. This includes a handful of Fossil-branded watches, with values topping out at $120 for a Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch.
The offers available on Michael Kors and Kate Spade watches are even better, topping out at $140. These are especially incredible values given that these smartwatches are not even eligible for upgrades to Wear OS 3.
Wear OS smartwatches that Best Buy accepts trade-ins for include the following, with values as seen when trading in towards the Pixel Watch 2, but values didn’t change when trading towards an Apple Watch Series 9. These may vary based on your specific model, as the values are reflective of the most generic colorway or model options.
Best Buy also accepts trade-ins for select Wear OS watches from Samsung, but these typically have pretty poor values. A 40mm Galaxy Watch 4 only gets $30 in return, while a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro (a much more expensive smartwatch) gets a mere $55.
The retailer also offers trade-ins for Apple Watch, Fitbit watches and trackers, and tons of Garmin wearables too.
9to5Google’s Take
This is long overdue, and way better than I personally expected. Wear OS smartwatches are notorious for not holding their values, especially models from Fossil. Being able to get $140 for a Fossil Group smartwatch released in 2019 borders on absurd. For anyone still using an older Fossil watch and looking to move up to something new, this is the best deal you’re going to get.
It’s only unfortunate that these trade-in offers appeared after some of the best holiday deals expired, such as the $299 Pixel Watch 2. Still, though, it’s a stellar offer.
More on Wear OS:
What’s going on with Fossil and Wear OS?
Wear OS gets stopwatches and calculators directly on the watch face with this app [Gallery]
Google Wallet for Wear OS now shows loyalty cards
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