At this point, I don’t think any of us are doubting the existence of the Pixel Watch. Sure, for years we all expected Google to get in the wearables game with a Pixel-branded watch and were constantly let down, but the leaks and proof of this yet-unreleased device are too overwhelming to ignore at this point. We’ve seen renders, marketing materials, and even some of the new watch’s digital faces in the past weeks, so at this point we’re simply left to figure out when we might actually see this long-awaited watch from Google.
According to Jon Prosser – the host of Front Page Tech and a pretty well-known leaker at this point – we now have a date for the Pixel Watch, and it coincides with one of Google’s largest yearly events: Google I/O.
As the guy who originally leaked the Pixel watch over a year ago via some very convincing (and accurate) renders, it isn’t a small deal that Prosser is saying his sources have a release date for the device. In his tweet, he points out that this is the first they’ve heard of an actual date from the inside, so we always have to take this sort of info and weigh it with a healthy bit of skepticism. That being said, I’m inclined to beleive that this is the date set for now as Jon’s sources have been spot on with the Pixel Watch so far.
Google I/O 2022
Don’t forget, Google I/O – the companies large, developer-focused conference – always hits in mid-May. Though we don’t have a date for this year’s event yet, we can look to last year as an example. The main keynote for the week’s activities happened on May 18th, so it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to think an announcement would happen at I/O with an availability date shortly after.
Google tends to focus in on Google Assistant (which the Pixel Watch will have, obviously), Android, Chrome OS, and Wear OS at I/O each year, so as a part of whatever they choose to show off in the Assistant and Wear OS spaces, a watch announcement would make a whole lot of sense. We expect the Pixel Watch to have some Google-specific features that other Wear OS devices likely don’t, so an unveiling during I/O would fit in very well.
At this point, however, that’s all we have on the Pixel Watch availability. I thought we’d perhaps see a launch of it and the Pixel Notepad sometime in March or April (when Android 12L shows up), but there’s really no reason for Google to put the launch of the Notepad and Pixel Watch together. At the end of the day, perhaps they’ll hold the Notepad for Google I/O as well, but it really feels more suitable for a launch alongside the release of 12L if you ask me. Either way, we’ll know more on all this before too long, right? Stay tuned.
