Google Pixel Watch - Leaked images show design!

[Senzelian]

A model of the much anticipated Google Pixel Watch was apparently lost and found at a restaurant in the U.S.
The images that were taken show a very minimalist and round design, with proprietary bands and a rotating crown and a single button.
The Pixel Watch will most likely be announced at Google I/O in may 2022.

 

 

 

Quotes
(from Androidcentral)
 

Quote

The source, who we have left anonymous to protect their identity, said the watch, which could be “a testing model for the Internal Pixel team,” was found at a restaurant.

 

Quote

Previous rumors have suggested the watch will have a rotating crown and potentially two hidden buttons. 

[...] but if this is the rumored watch then there is definitely at least one button next to the crown. 

[...] it seems that the watch’s band is a proprietary Google band and looks very similar to the jelly-like Apple Watch sport bands. This could mean that we might see many more colors to come. It also looks like it attaches directly to the watch case. 

 

 

Pictures of the supposed Google Pixel Watch
(from Androidcentral and stadt-bremerhaven)

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thoughts
 

I'm very excited about what Google has to offer with their watch.
The design certainly fits right in with all the other Pixel products and I think most people were expecting a similar design to what has been shown in the pictures. The only thing that really disappoints me, are the wrist bands, because they are proprietary. As a male I'm also not too happy about the seemingly small size (obviously I have to compensate), but it might just look smaller than it actually is.

 

I have high expectations for this watch, as Google has been teasing us for years with new Wear OS updates and with the purchase of Fitbit. I hope that the recent colaboration between Samsung and Google was beneficial here and that this is hopefully the best Android smartwatch that there ever was, but of course with Google I'm sceptical. 

 

It will also be interesting to see, which chip this smartwatch will power. I doubt it will be a smaller version of Google Tensor and my bet is certainly on Qualcomm's Wear 5100, but how cool would it be if Google managed to cram a Tensor in there with all its magic AI power. The colaboration with Samsung could also indicate that we will find Samsung's Exynos W920 within the new Pixel Watch's housing.

 

 

Sources

https://www.androidcentral.com/wearables/google-pixel-watch-live-images-exclusive

https://stadt-bremerhaven.de/google-pixel-watch-so-sieht-sie-am-handgelenk-aus/


Edit: I put the pics in a spoiler

[Lightwreather]

Huh, I wonder who google paid to leave this at said restaurant.

[Arika]

Yay proprietary watch bands !

[Levent]

I can already see myself shattering the screen on one of these in less than a month.

[Origami Cactus]

54 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Huh, I wonder who google paid to leave this at said restaurant.

Yeah, that is extremely sketchy lol. Woops, I took of my watch from my hand, I took off the proprietary watchbands so the design for those wouldn't leak, I managed to put the watchbands into my pocket, while forgetting the actual watch on the table. And before that, I accidentally bricked the watch, so that it wouldn't boot.

Very oopsy, slightly daisy, many accidents.

 

To get to the actual topic at hand, it probably features Samsung W920, because anything Qualcom has made in the wearOS space has been a waste of silicon.

I won't get the new watch, Samsung GW4 has been good enough for me and they were given away for basically free. But I am happy to receive Google Assistant finally after 9 months.

[RejZoR]

Who wants to bet it'll be the same trainwreck of a device as Pixel phones are? Brought to you by company that developed the OS itself, but can't keep it together because they are incompetent as f**k.

[That Franc]

Oh my god, it's fugly.

[CephDigital]

Thinking of getting a new watch from my Ticwatch C2 (preordered this thing when it first came out) so it's between the google watch and the samsung watch 4. Let's hope it doesnt disappoint...

[Doobeedoo]

Looks like a tracking puck..

[Senzelian]

3 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Who wants to bet it'll be the same trainwreck of a device as Pixel phones are?

On which part of a 0-10 scale is a trainwreck nowadays? Cause even if people don't like the slightest thing, they immediately "hate" it. So I'm genuinely confused.
My Pixel 6 Pro is a 8/10 experience for me.

 

2 hours ago, CephDigital said:

Let's hope it doesnt disappoint...

I'm with you on this one. I've been running a Fossil Explorist Gen 3 for 3,5 years now and was holding out for the Google Pixel Watch since then. I will get it either way, but this needs to be a good and solid experience, cause otherwise Google should get out of the smartwatch business and concentrate on their Fitbit stuff instead. But because of Fitbit I'm also confident that they aren't able to screw it up too bad.

[Quackers101]

doesn't android watches still have a lot of issues, to android versions and OEMs? not quite the puck I would puck around.

[Senzelian]

4 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

doesn't android watches still have a lot of issues, to android versions and OEMs?

Currently no issues come to mind. There has always been and always will be a bit of tension between Google and Android device manufacturers, especially those that aren't called Samsung, but other than that Android and Wear OS have both made big steps forward and into the right direction. The new Wear OS platform seems to be in itself very good, but there are issues like Google Assistant not being available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 as mentioned by @Origami Cactus

 

Either way I think the new Wear OS version 3 and this new watch are certainly the right way to go and build right now the best platform Google has ever had to create a great device. Now we'll just have to hope and wait until May 11 for Google I/O.

[Quackers101]

3 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Either way I think the new Wear OS version 3 and this new watch are certainly the right way to go and build right now the best platform Google has ever had to create a great device. Now we'll just have to hope and wait until May 11 for Google I/O.

so long one doesn't need to have an app for every android OEMs with having to accept everyones data collection tools.

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, Quackers101 said:

so long one doesn't need to have an app for every android OEMs with having to accept everyones data collection tools.

Afaik the Google wear OS app works for all Wear OS smartwatches. And that is really all you need to get a Wear OS smartwatch up and running.
But if data collection is something you want to avoid, then you probably shouldn't own a smartwatch in the first place. Even just owning a smartphone is like giving your data away for free. Personally I don't care about that.

[Quackers101]

27 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

But if data collection is something you want to avoid, then you probably shouldn't own a smartwatch in the first place.

Not avoid, but trying to reduce some. Like you say, these platforms are not without their fair share of collecting data in the first place.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Senzelian said:

On which part of a 0-10 scale is a trainwreck nowadays? Cause even if people don't like the slightest thing, they immediately "hate" it. So I'm genuinely confused.
My Pixel 6 Pro is a 8/10 experience for me.

 

I'm with you on this one. I've been running a Fossil Explorist Gen 3 for 3,5 years now and was holding out for the Google Pixel Watch since then. I will get it either way, but this needs to be a good and solid experience, cause otherwise Google should get out of the smartwatch business and concentrate on their Fitbit stuff instead. But because of Fitbit I'm also confident that they aren't able to screw it up too bad.

It has more problems months later than it had on release and it's dumb elementary problems that phone coming from company that developed its OS in the first place shouldn't ever had. And this isn't the first time, Pixel phones constantly have dumb software issues that Google needs weeks and months to fix just to then break something else. Pixel 6 sounded interesting until I started reading horror stories about its software problems. MKBHD confirming that in the end was the last nail in the coffin. When probably biggest Google fan says that, you know something is seriously wrong.

[Origami Cactus]

53 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Afaik the Google wear OS app works for all Wear OS smartwatches. And that is really all you need to get a Wear OS smartwatch up and running.
But if data collection is something you want to avoid, then you probably shouldn't own a smartwatch in the first place. Even just owning a smartphone is like giving your data away for free. Personally I don't care about that.

Galaxy watch 4 doesn't work with the Google Wear OS app, it has it's own proprietary version.

But that is not a big issue, as it is way better than anything Google has come up with, you can chance EVERY single aspect and setting of the watch on the app.

[Senzelian]

34 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

It has more problems months later than it had on release and it's dumb elementary problems that phone coming from company that developed its OS in the first place shouldn't ever had. And this isn't the first time, Pixel phones constantly have dumb software issues that Google needs weeks and months to fix just to then break something else. Pixel 6 sounded interesting until I started reading horror stories about its software problems. MKBHD confirming that in the end was the last nail in the coffin. When probably biggest Google fan says that, you know something is seriously wrong.

I read all of those articles too and I also read all the comments underneath those articles of people saying how happy they were with their Pixel 6.
Either we're all just super lucky, or it's a loud minority that either has issues or doesn't have issues or the problems only happen in certain parts of the world.

One thing is clear, news outlets jumped immediately on the idea that the Pixel 6 would have issues that made it unusable. 

 

I have a Pixel 3a XL, a Pixel 5 and a Pixel 6 Pro and with none of them did I ever encounter issues that would ruin my experience.
There were always only minor software issues, which I mostly experienced in Android beta versions. Maybe I am just the luckiest Pixel owner in the world.

One Pixel product that I have had serious problems with tho, are the Pixel Buds. I'm on my second one now and I had connection and battery issues before.

Other than that I'm mostly satisfied with Google's products.

 

28 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

Galaxy watch 4 doesn't work with the Google Wear OS app, it has it's own proprietary version.

But that is not a big issue, as it is way better than anything Google has come up with, you can chance EVERY single aspect and setting of the watch on the app.

Dang, that sucks.
Does the Wear OS app work with your watch at all or does it not even show up as a Wear OS device in the app?

[Origami Cactus]

2 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Dang, that sucks.
Does the Wear OS app work with your watch at all or does it not even show up as a Wear OS device in the app?

Absolutely doesn't work, won't detect the watch etc, you have to use the Galaxy Wearable app.

Which is good, because the Wear OS app is a burning garbage pile, so people using the GW4 have no choice to ruin their experience with the watch by using that.

Spoiler

Ok maybe a bit harsh, but the wearOS app hasn't improved since 1.5 days, and is worse than GW app in every way.

Hopefully they update their app before launching the Pixel watch.

 

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, Origami Cactus said:

Absolutely doesn't work, won't detect the watch etc, you have to use the Galaxy Wearable app.

Which is good, because the Wear OS app is a burning garbage pile, so people using the GW4 have no choice to ruin their experience with the watch by using that.

That's so typical of Google to introduce a new software, but completly forgets to update all the necessary background features. It's like Windows 8/10/11 and the old control panel.
I hope they update Wear OS with the launch of the Pixel Watch; they have to!

[RejZoR]

19 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

I read all of those articles too and I also read all the comments underneath those articles of people saying how happy they were with their Pixel 6.
Either we're all just super lucky, or it's a loud minority that either has issues or doesn't have issues or the problems only happen in certain parts of the world.

One thing is clear, news outlets jumped immediately on the idea that the Pixel 6 would have issues that made it unusable. 

 

I have a Pixel 3a XL, a Pixel 5 and a Pixel 6 Pro and with none of them did I ever encounter issues that would ruin my experience.
There were always only minor software issues, which I mostly experienced in Android beta versions. Maybe I am just the luckiest Pixel owner in the world.

One Pixel product that I have had serious problems with tho, are the Pixel Buds. I'm on my second one now and I had connection and battery issues before.

Other than that I'm mostly satisfied with Google's products.

 

Dang, that sucks.
Does the Wear OS app work with your watch at all or does it not even show up as a Wear OS device in the app?

Lets just say I'm not willing to gamble about that on a device that costs over frigging 800€...

[Senzelian]

I've added another picture of the Pixel Watch in comparison to the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch. 

[Lord Bloobus]

I got a new fitbit recently so I'll probably get the 2nd version of this if it looks good and isn't killed off.

[Senzelian]

3 minutes ago, Lord Bloobus said:

isn't killed off.

[Lord Bloobus]

14 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

Just setting my expectations to reasonable, Google has proved it'll kill even popular things. It needs some good parity to fitbit to even give people any reason to switch or take up a smartwatch for the first time.

 

Also I don't need a phone on my wrist. I want notifications, basic music control, fitness/wellness tracking, and most importantly I don't want to charge it every day. They have a lot of territory to cover to get a product that entices me or anyone with similar desires.