First and foremost, it’s worth saying that these real-life images do look like the renders that surfaced a couple of times. So we’ll be getting exactly what you think, at this point. It is mentioned that this could be a “testing model for the internal Pixel team”. That’s, at least, what the person who found it said. It’s easily possible, of course. The source also asked Android Central to protect its identity.
The Google Pixel Watch testing unit was found at a restaurant, of all places
As you can see, this will be a round smartwatch, which will offer a rather simple, and yet elegant design. A rotating button will sit on the right-hand side of it. It sure looks like this will be both a dial and a physical button.
You can also see the connectors for a watch band in the provided images, and a microphone as well. At the bottom of the watch, some sensors are shown. When the watch is shown upside down, you can also see two additional buttons, well, potential buttons. These definitely seem like hidden physical buttons.
The device will require proprietary Google watch bands, unfortunately
Now, the watch itself is not the only thing that was shared, its watch band did as well. If you take a look at the image below this paragraph, you’ll see what we’re talking about. Unfortunately, this seems to be a proprietary Google band. In other words, you won’t be able to use standard watch bands.
The source noted that nothing happened past the boot logo when he tried to power it up. It’s possible no OS is installed on this smartwatch. The watch box was also left behind, and it contains the following note: “This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission and Industry Canada, nor has it been tested for compliance with EU regulations”.
It was also mentioned that this model is for “internal testing and development only”, and that the packaging is not final. We’re not sure how someone can accidentally leave a production unit of a watch at a restaurant, along with its box and watch band, but there you have it. We won’t get into the discussion about whether this was on purpose or not, as we can’t possibly know that.
This smartwatch may become official next month during Google I/O
As a reminder, the Google Pixel Watch may get announced during Google I/O 2022, alongside the Pixel 6a. In other words, it may arrive on May 11. Google may opt to wait for the Pixel 7 event later this year to release it, though, or perhaps even to announce it, as nothing has been confirmed yet. We’ll have to wait and see.
