Google plans to release two flagship smartwatches early next year. This is the latest information coming out of a report from The Verge today and said to be directly from Jeff Chang, an Android Wear product manager. As a result, it does seem to be the case that this is as firm of a confirmation as one is likely to get on the topic. According to the information, both new smartwatches will arrive within the first quarter of 2017. It is also being confirmed that the two new Google smartwatches will indeed be smartwatches which will look to spearhead the launch of Android Wear 2.0, as they will be the first watches to come running the latest version of Wear. Which ties in with another report which came through back in October and further likely explains the reasoning behind Google initially delayed the launch of Android Wear 2.0 a few months ago. As it now seems clear that the launch was delayed to coincide with the release of these two new smartwatches.
It is also worth pointing out that these new smartwatches will not be branded as Pixel smartwatches and therefore, will not be joining the Pixel line along with the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL smartphones. Instead, and in contrast to the two Pixel phones, the two new smartwatches will come with manufacturer branding. A move which Chang noted as being one which is more in line with the Nexus way of doing things, than the Pixel way. Unfortunately, details on the manufacturer behind the Pixel smartwatches has not been confirmed, neither has details on whether it is the same manufacturer producing both smartwatches.
The only other notable feature that has been confirmed in this latest report is that both smartwatches will come equipped with NFC. It seems that overall, Google is hoping that the release of two of their own affiliated smartwatches will help to drive forward the Android Wear platform. This was best noted by the dialogue from Chang looking to highlight that following the arrival of the new smartwatches, there will be a string of other smartwatches coming through in 2017 from other manufacturers and running on Android Wear 2.0.