A belated Google Pixel Watch update: In retrospect, why’d I wait?

Sometimes, it turns out, the primary benefits of a hardware swap end up not being the key features highlighted in the successor’s press release.

Back in September 2023, I belatedly (considering its May 2022 introduction, with subsequent production beginning in October of that same year) acquired a first-generation Google Pixel Watch.

Since then, and until just a few months ago, it’s been the consistent “daily driver” on my wrist, smoothly surviving multiple updates to both its firmware, O/S and app suite foundations and more generally reliably chugging along day after day. But I’ve now replaced it with the third-generation successor, released in August 2024 (belatedness strikes again!).

What prompted the migration, and why didn’t I just go straight to the latest-generation Pixel Watch 5 unveiled in August of this year, just a few months back?

Glad you asked.

Processor and UI updates: Meh

The OG (original-generation) Pixel Watch was based on the dual-core Arm Cortex-M33-powered Samsung Exynos 9110 SoC, whereas the Pixel Watch 3 and 5 both run Qualcomm-developed application processors, respectively the quad-core Cortex-A53 plus plus single-core (co-processor) Cortex M55 SW5100 (a.k.a. Snapdragon W5 Gen 1) and an “accelerated” tweak of the W5 Gen 2. Maybe this is why?

Not really. Even two years after I first put it on my wrist, and four years after it first shipped, the OG Pixel Watch was still sufficiently “snappy” for my purposes. In fact, truth be told, I really still can’t discern any tangible difference between the OG Pixel Watch and my new “daily driver” in this regard. That said, power consumption in various operating modes is only part of the total picture.

Energy consumption—how long the smartwatch needs to be in its highest power draw states, or said another way, how quickly and for what percentage of the total between-charges operating time it can return to and remain in its lowest power draw states—is an ancillary benefit of a more modern processing architecture. Again, hold that thought.

The OG Pixel Watch, which exited the official support list a year ago, was also blocked from receiving Wear OS 6 (released in May 2025) and its Material 3 Expressive UI approach, along with associated new and updated OS-specific applications. Again, this evolution was a nice to have but not at all essential from an upgrade-motivation standpoint.

I’d draw an analogy to the transition from MacOS 15 “Sequoia” to MacOS 26 “Tahoe” and its “Liquid Glass” interface, also a year back. While new users might have found it more “friendly”, long-timers like myself found “Liquid Glass” to be if anything a notable backstep from a functionality standpoint. Therein the subsequent UI tone-down in this year’s MacOS 27 “Golden Gate” successor.

Battery life and charging speed: Yay!

After two years of constant operation, it’s inevitable that the integrated battery’s charge storage capacity will have degraded to at least some degree. So it was with my original Pixel Watch, specifically below the all-important at-least-24-hours threshold that I’d relied on for my daily longstanding “throw it on the charger while I’m in the shower” routine.

I’m also back to hiking regularly; although the smartwatch’s integrated and power-sucking GPS facilities aren’t active (I’m instead leveraging those in the smartphone in my pocket for route and mileage logging purposes). It’s still counting steps, which may have had something to do with the recently noticed OG Pixel Watch battery life degradation. Regardless, it was retire-and-replace time.

The Pixel Watch 3 has gotten me back above 24 hours between charges…to nearly 1.5 days, in fact. This fundamentally has to do, I realize, with its brand-new Li-ion cell status. The battery is also slightly larger than the one in its predecessor; 307 mAh (mine’s the 41mm variant) vs 294 mAh. And the higher energy efficiency of the newer application processor, noted earlier, along with other hardware likely also has at least something to do with the progress.

And what about when I still eventually need to recharge the smartwatch? Here, it turns out, is the biggest upgrade of all, at least from my perspective. The OG Pixel Watch had relied on backside magnet-enhanced inductive charging, which was inefficient, therefore not only slow but also heat-generating, the latter causing the glue holding at least some units’ (thankfully not mine) back panels in place to loosen and the panels themselves to subsequently fall away.

A subsequent firmware update lowered the temperature, unfortunately in the process further slowing the charging speed.

The Pixel Watch 3 (as well as its Pixel Watch 2 predecessor) is also magnet-enhanced for proper orientation purposes, but this time leverages a more efficient direct “pogo pins” approach.

The result? The numbers tell the tale (the TL;DR summary: ~2x faster charging).

 

50% charged

80% charged

100% charged

Pixel Watch 1

45 min.

75 min.

110 min.

Pixel Watch 3

24 min.

35 min.

60 min.

A fiscally prudent compromise

All well and good. But I still haven’t answered the other question: why didn’t I go straight to the Pixel Watch 5, or at least its year-earlier Pixel Watch 4 predecessor, both of which incorporate a highly touted domed glass face, more advanced processors (along with 50% more DRAM in the Pixel Watch 5), even larger battery capacities, and an even more advanced direct side-charging scheme?

Economics, stated simply. I bought my brand new, sealed-box cellular-supportive variant of the Pixel Watch 3 for $189 (after $10-off coupon) from an eBay seller, and tacked on a three-year extended warranty for an extra $20.99. An also-brand-new (as it turned out) LTE-capable Pixel Watch 2 that I bought as a spare from Amazon Resale was even cheaper: $90.26 on promotion.

The 41-mm cellular-supportive variant of the Pixel Watch 5 conversely costs $499.99 new, plus an extra $119 for a two-year warranty. And although in either case I needed to discard (more accurately, donate, along with the smartwatch and its spare themselves) and upgrade the charger infrastructure, with the Pixel Watch 3 (and 2) I was able to continue using the existing screen protectors, protective cases, and other accessories I’d already accumulated.

That’s it for today, folks. What do you think of my fiscally cautious half-step upgrade strategy, and its outcome? Let me and your fellow readers know in the comments, please!

—Brian Dipert is the associate editor, as well as a contributing editor, at EDN.

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