The Pixel Watch puzzle pieces are falling into place

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

After years of rumors and false starts, it seems like we are close to finally seeing a Pixel Watch running Wear OS.

We've been hearing about a new watch for a while, but a recent leak from Evan Blass got me thinking. Earlier today, Blass posted a picture of a Wear OS 3.1 screen. There is a chance that the Pixel Watch will be teased next month.

If you've been paying attention, there's nothing surprising about this. It was assumed that the Pixel Watch would run Wear OS, though there was some speculation that it might be a digital-Analog hybrid. This relatively inconsequential leak shows that 2022, will be a big year for the company.

Won't be long now. pic.twitter.com/kIry1QdYNK

— Ev (@evleaks) April 15, 2022

This is the culmination of at least three years of work by the company. Fossil's technology and a portion of the company's research and development team were purchased by Google in early 2019. At the time, the move was indicative of the company's commitment to Wearables. At its Made by Google event, which took place later that year, a renewed focus onambient computing was emphasized.

There wasn't much happening on the Wearable front in 2020. The products under the Fitbit brand did not include the Google Assistant. Wear OS continued to see updates. At I/O in 2021, at which it broke the door wide open, it was announced that it was partnering with SAMSUNG to create a new unified version of its Wear OS platform. Wear OS 3 was released in late 2021.

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

The first year where the Wear OS platform will be available on more than just a single device is 2022. In the second half of this year, existing Wear OS watches from Fossil and Mobvoi will be eligible to upgrade, according to a statement from the company. James Park has stated multiple times that a Fitbit Wear OS watch is coming, as well as that there will be future integrations with Google. It's hard to say when. FDA clearance was recently received for passive arrhythmia monitoring on Fitbit devices. It's not hard to imagine that it will benefit from the years of research into advanced health tech features that Fitbit has done. A more potent chip is expected to be released this year by the company, which has contributed to Wear OS's struggles to catch up to its competitors.

All the pieces are in place. There are still many questions. Will the watch focus on fitness and wellbeing or will it include more smart features? Is this going to work for all phones, or will it be more focused on thePixels? What about the operating system? We won't have these answers until the second half of the year. One thing is certain. This is a big year for the Wearable platform, and capping it off with a Pixel Watch would be a great way to make a statement.