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Google CEO Pichai photographed wearing unannounced Pixel Watch

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By Alan Friedman

Published: Sep 07, 2022, 10:25 PM

Google CEO Pichai photographed wearing unannounced Pixel Watch

On October 6th, along with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, Google will finally introduce the long-awaited Pixel Watch. The device sports a round dial and will be pre-installed with Wear OS 3.1. The timepiece will support Google Assistant and it will allow users to access Google Maps navigation even if they left their smartphone at home.

If there is an issue with the Pixel Watch, it is with the chip inside the device which is an older Samsung Exynos 9110 that was first released in 2018. The device is expected to be released with a 300mAh battery and could be offered in Black, Gray, and Gold. The watch will charge with a magnetic puck.

The Pixel Watch brought back memories of 2010 when a pre-release version of the iPhone 4 was found on the floor of a bar in San Jose. In the case of the Pixel Watch, the timepiece (sans any bands) was discovered in a restaurant after Google employees brought it there for testing. Holy leaked photos Batman! Pictures of the watch were soon plastered all over the place. Some feel that the whole thing was a publicity stunt created by Google to get people talking about the watch.

More photos of the Pixel Watch pic.twitter.com/DeatYHBeiH
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) September 7, 2022

Speaking about forcing a photo opportunity, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman disseminated a tweet a couple of days ago which included a photo of Google CEO Sundar Pichai wearing the Pixel Watch at Vox Media's 2022 Code Conference. This isn't the first time that a CEO brought an unreleased device to an event. In 2017, Apple's Tim Cook appeared at Oxford University for a Q&A session that was recorded on video.

While sitting on a couch, an iPhone slipped out of his pocket, and thanks to the vertically mounted rear camera array, we could tell that the device was the then unreleased iPhone X. That model wouldn't be released until November 3rd, 2017. Cook visited Oxford in October 2017.

In the past, Google blamed Wear OS shortcomings for the failure of the Pixel Watch to appear. But it doesn't appear that there will be any disappointments this year as Pichai has been building a Pixel ecosystem that he hopes will eventually rival Apple's. Pixel will soon have its premium flagship handsets surrounded by premium earbuds, a Pixel Tablet (coming next year), and a smartwatch. Apple has had a huge head start, but we will see if Google can at least gain some traction, build from there, and close the gap.

It's going to be a tough task.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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