It’s about time: The Google Pixel Watch arrives this fall

Enlarge (credit: Google)

Years of rumors are coming to fruition today-Google is finally launching the Pixel Watch. Google has been building a smartwatch OS for eight years, but it has never made self-branded smartwatch hardware. That changes today, or at least "this fall," when the Pixel Watch is slated to hit store shelves.

Google only gave a brief overview of the Pixel Watch on Wednesday but didn't include specs or a price. The watch includes Fitbit integration, the expected Google apps, and the design that leaked earlier. The front is all glass, with a spinnable crown on the side. The body is stainless steel, and the bands are removable. It supports NFC for tap and pay, and there's a new Google Home app.

The bands come off. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Google's smartwatch OS-first called "Android Wear" and now "Wear OS"-has been dormant for years in both the hardware and software categories. Qualcomm strangled the Android smartwatch market by going six years between significant smartwatch system-on-a-chip releases, and Google let three years pass between major Wear OS updates. Google launched a plan to resurrect its smartwatch platform in the past year with the launch of Wear OS 3 and a serious, more reliable hardware partner in Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 dumped Samsung's Tizen OS and is the first (and so far only) Wear OS 3 watch. At this point, the plan seems to be working, with Counterpoint Research tracking a huge Wear OS market share increase year over year, and now the OS is in striking distance of the Apple Watch.

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