Google’s first smartwatch could arrive in 2022

Something I look forward to: Google’s hardware team has been steadily expanding its reach over the past few years. It has already jumped feet first in the realm of headsets, smart homes, phones, and even energetic laptops, but its ambitions continue to grow. According to new reports, Google is working on its own smartwatch, with plans to launch the device next year, provided all goes well.

This is great news for Google fans. To date, Google has focused primarily on the software side of smartwatches, developing technology like Wear OS and allowing third-party watchmakers to build their hardware around it. Soon, however, Google may be competing with manufacturers of wearable devices that it has supported for so many years, such as Samsung.

Regardless, the device has supposedly been codenamed “Rohan” internally, but that probably won’t be its final nickname. It is more likely to ship with a name like “Pixel Watch” or “Pixel Wear”; that’s still speculation on our part, but it would fit in much better with the previous naming conventions that Google has employed to date.

As for the design of the device, Business Insider sources say that the watch face will be round and perhaps even bezel-less. It’s hard to know what the latter would look like in practice (or what implications it might have for the durability of the watch), but the former isn’t exactly a surprise. Many smartwatches ship with round faces, although the Apple Watch is a notable exception.

Google aims to make a watch that is comfortable for at least “90% of the population,” according to a design document seen by Business Insider. This is important to Google because it considers that “insufficient size completely excludes some users from portable writing devices.”

As someone with a large wrist, I totally agree with Google. I have tried using older Fitbit models in the past, but they were always a little too tight for my liking; or they just weren’t well formed for my proportions.

In terms of functionality, Business Insider says the watch will support health and fitness tracking features, like most of its future competitors. Employees have reportedly already been allowed to test the device to determine weak spots and potential areas for improvement. Two current examples seem to be the watch’s slow charge rate and its frequent need to charge.

Given how critical battery life is for smartwatches, we’d be surprised if the device ships in that state. Those issues will most likely be resolved before the Pixel Watch – or whatever it’s called – launches in 2022.