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OnePlus may have not one but two different smartwatches in the pipeline

Updated: Mar 17, 2021, 3:47 AM

The OnePlus Watch may or may not look a lot like the Oppo Watch

In addition to not one and not two but three high-end handsets, as well as an ultra-low-cost fitness band, OnePlus is seemingly preparing to release two smartwatches in the relatively near future. That's a decidedly stark departure from the company's device lineup of yore, which included a grand total of two new Android phones a year, and we're not even counting the two Nord-branded mid-rangers set for a US commercial debut next week following an international 2020 announcement.

The problem with such a rich and diverse product portfolio, especially for a significantly smaller outfit than the likes of Samsung and Apple, is that some models or families will inherently receive less attention than others when it comes to things like research and development. It's hard to get very excited about the fast-approaching OnePlus Band, for instance, when we know for a fact that the company's first-ever wearable device will strongly resemble the Oppo Band (both inside and out).

Similarly, the OnePlus Watch has long been rumored to "borrow" the design and features of the Oppo Watch, and while a new leak may seem to support that popular theory at first glance, its author is explicitly and firmly rejecting that speculation.

Even though the recently surfaced OnePlus Health app in Google's Play Store includes lines of code that appear to unsubtly hint at some sort of connection between the OnePlus Watch and Oppo Watch, rising Twitter leaker Nils Ahrensmeier claims the former is by no means simply a "rebranded" version of the latter. That's despite the fact the aforementioned app's APK was also found to contain a short video of a device looking an awful lot like the Oppo Watch, which of course could be little more than a placeholder.

Intriguingly, the OnePlus Watch RX name is now in the rumor mill as well, and in case you're wondering, yes, that thing may also be related to an existing product dubbed, you guessed it, the Oppo Watch RX.

Even if the OnePlus Watch and Watch RX are indeed more than rebranded "clones" of the Oppo Watch and Watch RX, the current assumption is someone other than OnePlus will handle their production. Unfortunately, apart from the fact they'll run Wear OS on the software side of things, we're left scratching our heads trying to figure out what these devices might have going for them. That being said, a rectangular body for the former and a circular display for the latter are probably pretty safe bets at the moment.