Google Pixel Watch Review: Smooth Operator

Price When Reviewed

From $349.99

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Having made a smartwatch operating system for almost a decade, Google finally made its own smartwatch in 2022.

When I first saw the LG G Watch in 2013 ahead of its official launch I was excited, but having been a fan of Google’s own hardware for a while, I’ve always wondered what an own-brand smartwatch would be like. 

Google makes Wear OS after all, and while I’d almost given up hope various times over the years, the Pixel Watch was worth the wait in almost every way.

Starting at $349/£339/€379, it is priced in between the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro as well as the Apple Watch SE and Series 8. For a first-generation device, Google has done an excellent job to make something that finally feels like a true Apple Watch rival for Android fans, but it’s not without its flaws.

Is the Google Pixel Watch still worth buying?

The Pixel Watch has now been succeeded by the Pixel Watch 2. However, don’t let that put you off, as the upgrades are reasonably minor.

The original Watch doesn’t offer as many strap options, and is slightly heavier than its successor. It also has a less impressive heart rate monitor, and completely forgoes body-response and skin temperature sensors.

That aside, the devices are very similar. The Pixel Watch still looks great, is comfortable to wear, has loads of great tech and works brilliantly thanks to the combination of the intuitive Wear OS 3 software, a digital crown, and a dazzling screen.

Moreover, it has come down in price since it first launched, so its certainly worth a buy if you’re considering it. Often we see some of the biggest discounts during sale seasons such as Black Friday and Prime Day.

The biggest thing letting it down is its battery life. If that’s a dealbreaker, take a look at our chart of the best smartwatches.

Design & Build 

• Recycled stainless steel 
• Custom 3D glass 
• 50ATM 

The design of the Pixel Watch is one of the main lures for me. It really is a thing of beauty and somehow lives up to the renders we saw before the official launch which is very rare.  

Google has made the body out of 80% recycled stainless steel and the front is custom 3D Gorilla Glass 5. I’ve got the Polished Silver colour and it looks every bit as premium as you’d expect though I think this might be the worst colour, with Matte Black and Champagne Gold also on offer. 

The rounded and smooth pebble-like design gives the Pixel Watch a luxurious quality, especially when you add in the way the proprietary band seamlessly flows into the main body. The whole aesthetic just looks stunning and makes other smartwatches look boring or even ugly. 

Google supplies two sizes of band in the box to ensure you can get the right fit. The standard Fluoroelastomer band works well with a metal nodule you can put through any of the holes. 

There is a range of additional straps you can buy from Google including Stretch, Woven and Leather.

I was a tad worried about how thick the watch is at 12.3mm but it sits perfectly well on my wrist and is also lightweight at 36g not including the band. Overall, this is a dinky smartwatch which is great if you find others on the market too big. 

That Gorilla Glass front won’t be as durable as sapphire, but I’ve not had a single mark or scratch in over a week. The Pixel Watch is also waterproof to 5ATM (50m) so can go just about anywhere with you unless you’re a deep sea diver.

Around the sides of the body you’ll find a mic, speaker, button and a digital crown. You can wear the watch in any orientation so the crown can go on either side depending on your preference. 

Screen & Audio 

• AMOLED 
• 1000 nits brightness 
• Mic and speaker 

The compact design of the Pixel Watch does mean the display is on the small side and a reasonable bezel around it doesn’t help matters, although most of the watch faces and UI hide it well. 

Google doesn’t list a size for it but as far as I can gather it’s 1.2in which is the same as the Galaxy Watch 5. 

The AMOLED screen has a decent pixel density of 320ppi and DCI-P3 colour, though Google doesn’t say to what accuracy level. Regardless, the screen is crisp and colourful with up to 1000 nits brightness, according to the firm. 

I certainly haven’t had any problems viewing the Pixel Watch outdoors in strong sunlight. You can select three levels of brightness in the settings, but the watch also has adaptive brightness thanks to an ambient light sensor, so I haven’t needed to adjust it manually. 

There are also Bedtime and Cinema modes you can switch on for certain situations to avoid annoyance and to save battery life. 

I’ll talk in detail about battery life later but it’s worth noting now that there is an always-on option for the display but it’s off by default as it will shorten the life significantly. Otherwise, you have tap-to-wake or raise-to-wake as you’d expect though I found the latter not always reliable. 

As mentioned, there’s a microphone and speaker on one side of the watch and the mic does a solid job of picking up my voice for things like commands or dictation. The speaker is limited in quality due to the size of the Pixel Watch. 

I switched off audio notifications almost immediately, but you can also use it to have a phone call if necessary, though you will struggle if you’re not sat in a reasonably quiet room. Oddly, you can’t use it to listen to music. 

Software & Features 

• Wear OS 3.5 
• Useful ‘Tiles’ 
• Excellent Google integration 

There are no prizes for guessing that the Pixel Watch runs Wear OS. However, this Pixel-tinged version of Wear OS 3.5 isn’t something we’ve seen before and is similar to how if you buy a Pixel smartphone, you get the pure uninterrupted Android experience. 

Google has been working with Samsung on the software but the Galaxy Watch 5 range comes with a One UI overlay, for example. 

Setting up with Pixel 7 is a breeze as you get an automatic pop-up and the aptly named Pixel Watch app gives an excellent tutorial on how to use the device’s hardware and software. But thankfully you don’t need a Pixel phone to use the Watch – just an Android phone running Android 8.0 or above. iPhone users are out of luck.

From the main watch face, you can swipe up for notifications or swipe down for quick settings and information such as battery level. Scrolling can also be done with the digital crown which is suitably smooth and satisfying with excellent haptic feedback. And haptic feedback is great elsewhere, too. 

You will need the touch screen to select things though as well as swipe left or right from the watch face to access Tiles. These are essentially widgets for things like weather, calendar, sleep, heart rate and more.  

They are customisable in terms of the order they sit in, and you can even do this on the watch itself rather than the companion app, as well as add or remove them to your liking.

By default, there are eight watch faces to choose from and you can edit various elements to get things just right. There are also plenty more via the Pixel Watch to choose from if you like. Some hide the bezel better than others. 

You can reply to message notifications straight from the watch by dictation or using the screen to choose an emoji. I was also surprised by how well the on-screen keyboard worked to compose a message using swipe input.  

Pushing the digital crown goes back to the watch face or opens a list of apps depending where you are in the UI and the button above opens recently used apps or a long press summons Google Assistant. 

It’s all very neat and intuitive and the integration with Google services, as you might hope, is excellent. 

I’ve already mentioned Google Assistant can be accessed by long pressing the side button but you can also say “Hey Google” or make a complication shortcut on some watch faces. It works really well and meant I didn’t really need the Google Home app to do things like turn lights on and off. 

The Home app on Wear OS is in beta and a little basic so you can’t do things like view Nest cameras, adjust the volume of a speaker, or control a Nest thermostat. Most taps result in a message asking you to get your phone out. 

There’s also Google Maps for on-wrist directions, meaning you don’t need to keep getting your phone out when finding your way and this even includes a mini-map which works surprisingly well on the compact screen. 

You also have Google Wallet to make payments via NFC, although you will need to set up a PIN for security. 

The pre-loaded apps cover most bases but you can head to the Google Play Store to get more with lots available including Spotify, Calm, Outlook and many more. 

Fitness & Tracking 

• Fitbit integration 
• Plenty of sensors 

The other Google service that’s tightly woven into the Pixel Watch is Fitbit, since Google recently acquired the company. In a way, the Pixel Watch is the most premium Fitbit device you can buy with Google saying it has “Fitbit’s most accurate heart rate tracking yet.” 

This means you must track your stats on your phone using the Fitbit app, which you must have an account to sign into – you currently can’t sign in using your Google account. It’s another nail in the coffin for the Google Fit app, which is left out of the whole equation.

As usual, the optical heart rate monitor is found on the back of the watch and presses up against your skin. The digital crown is then used as somewhere to place your index finger if you want to do an ECG (electrocardiogram). 

The Pixel Watch will be able to track blood oxygen levels in future – there’s a sensor built in but it isn’t functional yet. That should come with a software update. It also has plenty of other sensors for tracking such as an accelerometer, gyroscope and altimeter. 

All this means you get extensive tracking whether you just want to count steps and calories or much more. Link the Pixel Watch with the Fitbit app and you’ll get all kinds of information with graphs of your heart rate and Zone Minutes – i.e. when you’ve reached certain heart rate zones during exercise such as ‘fat burn’ and ‘cardio’. 

There are more than 40 different activities to choose from and although some rival watches offer a lot more, these cover the most common. Your most used ones will appear on the Fitbit tile and built-in GPS means you can go out without your phone and still record your route.

Oddly, automatic tracking in the same way as certain Fitbits like the Sense 2 – with Auto Start, Stop and Pause – is not available on the Pixel Watch. The device can still automatically track certain activities and you will find them in the Fitbit app after you’ve finished. 

This is a shame and doesn’t really make sense considering Google owns Fitbit. In a comment to 9to5Google, the firm said, “Over time, we will work to bring more on device workout recognition to our watch portfolio.” I hope this is added sooner rather than later but until then, you’ll want to deliberately start an activity to make sure.

Something that is definitely on the way is fall detection which Google says will arrive ‘this winter’. It’s a feature common on Apple Watches that can tell if you’ve fallen and help you alert contacts or emergency services.

If you wear the…