Google Wear OS reference smartwatch with Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 announced

The move comes after several companies, such as Fossil and Casio stopped producing Wear OS watches. The new wearable will combine Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 system-on-a-chip (SoC) with Masimo’s health-tracking sensors. The SoC has four ARM Cortex A53 processor cores, an Adreno 702 GPU, an LTE modem, and Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. The biosensors are the same as those used in the upcoming Masimo Freedom smartwatch; this is the wearable that led to the import ban on Apple Watches. Features of the reference smartwatch are expected to include tracking of hydration level, blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate, heart rate and step count. However, tools to take ECG or blood pressure readings do not appear to be included.

According to Masimo, while this will be a “standardized package”, OEMs will be able to design the physical appearance of their smartwatch and the user interface. These smartwatches will then be sold under the OEM’s brand. At the time of writing, it is unclear which companies will use this reference smartwatch platform, or when the first wearables could launch.