Confirmed: OnePlus Watch Doesn’t Run Wear OS
  • Posted byby Kellen

Confirmed: OnePlus Watch Doesn’t Run Wear OS

We’ve been trying to tell you this was likely to be the case for weeks now, but OnePlus has gone ahead and confirmed it ahead of launch – the OnePlus Watch won’t run Wear OS. I repeat, the OnePlus Watch is not a Wear OS watch.

In a brief post today, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau talked a bit about the OnePlus Watch and how it will offer a “stunning and burdenless design” at an “affordable price point.” He mentioned that it will offer seamless connectivity between OnePlus smartphones, audio peripherals, smartwear devices, and the OnePlus TV. What he didn’t mention (at first) is which operating system it runs.

But shortly after he posted those initial details, a OnePlus user asked him specifically if the OnePlus Watch would run Wear OS or was “OnePlus planning to do a custom OS for its watch?” Pete replied by confirming our gut feeling:

When developing the OnePlus Watch, we tried to understand the pain points for a smart watch wearer.

We chose to go with a smart wear operating system developed based on RTOS because we believe it provides you a smooth and reliable experience while offering a great battery life, covering some of the biggest concerns we’ve been hearing from people looking to buy a smartwatch.

You’ll notice that he could have said, “Yes, it runs Wear OS,” but didn’t. Instead he confirmed that they chose a “smart wear operating system developed based on RTOS” that gives them a good experience and offers great battery life. In other words, the OnePlus Watch will indeed be a limited “smart” watch that likely shows you notifications and can track fitness. It’s like an Amazfit watch or one of Huawei’s GT watches that don’t run Wear OS. It should be powered by the OnePlus Health app they released alongside the OnePlus Band.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean this will be a bad watch! Those two watchmakers I mentioned above offer solid fitness experiences with a limited amount of smarts, great battery life, and are often very affordable. I actually believe these are going to be a big part of our wearable future, especially if Google can’t fall back in love with Wear OS.

Also, keep in mind that OnePlus told us they are working with Google on Wear OS, likely to try and improve it. Wear OS sucks and OnePlus knows that. But since they’ve acknowledged it already, there is a chance we’ll get a Wear OS watch from them in the future. For now, though, it’s not time.

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Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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22 Comments

  • First thought: Overinflate the price of the watch so you can promo it with your phones instead of knocking off $200.
    Second: Why does a watch need to be smart? The smart aspect of a smartwatch is more or less useless to all but a fraction of the people that have trained themselves to use their watch to its full potential. Maybe this will be the watch I have been looking for. A week or two of battery life while still giving me the info I need. Which is the time, who’s calling, and text/whatsapp notifs. I don’t want to be installing apps and watch faces, or talking/listening to my watch. Just give me the info I need so I know whether or not to pull the phone out of my pocket. Price it at around one to one fifty, let it work with my aging op5, and I will probably buy.

    • I went with a hybrid smart watch, I really enjoy it. Just the hands move to show notifications. No apps needed, no face, just a nice simple watch that is hard to tell it’s a smart watch. I will say though, it has a bugs which is probably why they didn’t make it really big

  • I love Oneplus- my last 3 phones have been the 3T, 6T, and 8 Pro; I also have the Bullets Wireless 2 and love them.
    I was interested in this, but without Wear OS it’s most likely a no go for me- I know we love to hate on it here, but my Fossil Gen 5 watch has been pretty great! I doubt I’d be able to start/lock/unlock my Ford Fusion with a Oneplus watch lol.

    Honestly I think smartwatches are better left to watch makers. Google just needs to get their act together and improve the software and let Fossil and other watch companies do what they do best.

  • At this point, it’s going to take a lot to get me to switch from Garmin watches.

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