The original Pixel Watch was late to the game. For years, there had been rumors of a Google smartwatch that never materialized. Then, when it finally arrived, it was a quintessential first-gen device, with thicc bezels, dismal battery life, and a host of quirks that needed ironing out. My DMs were full of people wondering when the watch would be unceremoniously dumped into Google’s infamous product graveyard. A part of me wondered if Google was going to spend the next decade playing catch-up.
Fast forward to 2025, and I’m holding the Pixel Watch 4 at Google’s office in New York City. On the surface (and my wrist), it doesn’t look like much has changed. But after fiddling with a few menus, watching some demos, and talking over the updates, it’s evident that Google has a clear vision about where smartwatches are going.
“The overall lens through which we see our mission as a team is ‘essential companion,’” says Sandeep Waraich, Google’s product lead for Pixel wearables. That “essential companion,” Waraich says, should be a wearable and continuous presence on your body that’s intelligent, helps coach you to better health, and also acts as a “guardian.”
Viewed that way, the bevy of Pixel Watch 4 updates starts to look like a roadmap.
Starting with hardware, the Pixel Watch 4 has a new domed “Actua 360” display — as in, the display itself, not just the glass, is also domed. What this translates to is about 10 percent more visible screen space, 15 percent thinner bezels, and a 50 percent increase in maximum brightness to 3,000 nits. On a table, there’s a lineup of the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4 with the flashlight app turned on. Side-by-side, the improvements are striking.
Material 3 Expressive in Wear OS 6 also helps emphasize the Pixel Watch’s roundness. (No squircles here, folks.) The widgets have more rounded edges, and each screen has been redesigned to be more glanceable, fitting more complications. It’s not Liquid Glass, but there are subtle animations when flitting through menus that call your attention to the Pixel Watch’s rain droplet-inspired design. Altogether, it’s a design tweak that makes sense and is aesthetically pleasing.
Google also says battery life has improved. The 41mm watch gets an estimated 30 hours on a single charge, while the 45mm gets 40 hours. That can stretch up to two days in battery saver mode for the smaller watch and three days for the larger one. I couldn’t test that at a hands-on, but I did get to see the improved fast charging in action. At 1:30PM ET, I stuck a 45mm Pixel Watch 4 with 50 percent battery on the watch’s new side-mounted charger. By 1:48PM, it was at 94 percent. Google says this translates to about 25 percent faster charging, taking only 15 minutes to go from zero to 50 percent.
I was prepared to hate the new side-mounted charger, which sees the charging pins moved onto the edge opposite the crown. Three proprietary chargers in four years feels wasteful. But while I don’t love e-waste, I do like the change. For one, it turns your watch into a little desk or nightstand display. It also makes it so that it doesn’t matter what kind of strap you use. With more traditional charging pucks, a loop-type band without a clasp tends to flop over. My colleague Allison Johnson pointed out that it kind of looks like the Pixel Watch is resting its tired little head on a pillow. That’s kind of cute.
Another thing that caught my eye: if you remove the straps and peer into the lugs, you now see two teeny tiny screws — because starting this year, the Pixel Watch 4’s display and battery will be replaceable and repairable. The screws aren’t proprietary either, and according to Waraich, the idea is to make the devices as durable and long-lasting as possible. He also says this will be true of every Pixel Watch going forward.
That’s huge. Smartwatches are notoriously hard to repair, and the Pixel Watch’s screen design makes it particularly prone to damage. (The Verge should know; we unintentionally cracked the displays of two Pixel Watches.) Repairability has specifically been a pain point for the Pixel Watches, so seeing Google take that feedback to heart is encouraging.
Put together, these hardware updates really zero in on Google’s attempt to build a glanceable device that lasts a long time. As for the personalized companion part, well, of course that’s referring to AI.
As with the Galaxy Watch 8, Gemini has a big presence on the Pixel Watch 4. It replaces Google Assistant and is capable of more complex queries — even if none have been able to blow my mind yet. But, in a bid to make interacting with Gemini as smooth as possible, the speaker and haptic engines have also been updated so you can hear and interact more easily. There’s also a new raise-to-talk gesture that lets you speak to Gemini without having to use the wake word. The processor has been upgraded to the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 to enable more on-device AI features, as well, like smart replies. On the Pixel Watch 4, you’ll get more smart reply options to texts that refer to the content of your conversations. They’re not confined to the default Messages app, either.
But the major AI update this time around is a Gemini-powered health coach that’s slated to arrive alongside a revamped Fitbit app in October. So far, I’ve been skeptical about AI fitness features, but I’m cautiously curious about what I’ve seen from Google. The gist is the health coach will act more like a personal trainer than a Captain Obvious summary generator. If you sleep poorly, it’ll adjust workout suggestions. (This is also why Google is also introducing an improved sleep algorithm.) You can tell it that you’ve been injured, and that too will be taken into consideration when generating weekly fitness plans. I did a deeper dive on the health coach demo, but to keep things brief, this is the first time that I’ve felt remotely intrigued by any AI health coaching feature.
Another big first is the Satellite SOS mode. If you’re without your phone and in a remote area with no signal, you can still call emergency services. (So long as you have the LTE version of the watch.) The big thing here is that there’s no extra subscription cost. The watch will also feature more accurate dual-frequency GPS — a nice update given that I’ve had issues with the Pixel Watch’s GPS maps in the past.
When you look back at the original Pixel Watch, this is a substantial amount of progress. There’s a healthy mix of sensible and experimental ideas. As far as AI smartwatch assistants, Google has beaten Apple to the punch. (Technically, Samsung got Gemini on a smartwatch first, but Gemini is Google’s baby.) Satellite SOS on a smartwatch is also an industry first, and Google is making a statement here with repairability. We’ll have to see how that AI coach fares in testing, but here, too, Google is barreling forward.
I’m not saying every update or idea presented here is a good one. But you can at least see the shape of Google’s plans: a sleek, all-day, and personalized companion that lets you bring AI where your phone can’t easily go. There are rough edges. Some would argue glasses are a much better form factor for this concept. But, given how many wearable makers have felt stuck in a loop of iterative updates, it’s refreshing to see that Google has a bold, wearable thesis that it’s working toward. Whether it can truly execute on delivering the ultimate “essential companion” is up for debate. But right now? Dare I say it, I think Google has the wearable juice.
Photos by Allison Johnson / The Verge
