Forthcoming Mobvoi and Fossil Group smartwatches will not launch with Wear OS 3
Google has finally confirmed which existing Wear OS smartwatches will receive Wear OS 3, following months of confusion about its 'new unified platform'. The company has inadvertently revealed that several upcoming smartwatches will not ship with Wear OS 3, too.
There is no set release date for Wear OS 3, beyond a vague 'mid to second half of 2022' in the case of the TicWatch Pro 3 and TicWatch E3. However, the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic will offer a taste of Wear OS 3 at least nine months before that, albeit as One UI Watch. Similarly, Google has confirmed that Fitbit will release Wear OS 3-based smartwatches soon.
By contrast, 'follow on TicWatch devices' will only be eligible for Wear OS 3. Seemingly, this is a roundabout way of saying that any Mobvoi smartwatch will launch with Wear OS 2.x until Google releases Wear OS 3 to its partners.
Likewise, the same support document states that Wear OS 3 will only reach upcoming Fossil Group smartwatches by mid-2022 at the earliest. Presumably, Google means any smartwatches sold under Fossil subsidiaries, such as Michael Kors, Misfit and Skagen, among others. Incidentally, Fossil has announced that its next smartwatch will be its 'best possible', although we did not think that meant the best possible smartwatch for Wear OS 2.xx.
In short, Google appears to have created two tiers for its supposedly unified platform, with Fitbit and Samsung the sole occupants of its top tier. Below those two are Fossil, its subsidiaries, and Mobvoi, which must make do with Wear OS 2.xx until mid-2022, a year after Google announced Wear OS 3.
