Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems:
Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends
> Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breathing quality trends, and insulin resistance trends. Rolling out soon — with your first detailed summary arriving after one month of wear — these reports illuminate metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular shifts early, giving you clear insights to help you take control of your long-term health. Plus, monthly summaries will soon be available across our wearable portfolio, including the new Google Fitbit Air.
I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.
I leave my apple watch on a charger for at most 15-20 minutes in the morning and that gets it from the 10-20% in the morning to about 80-90% which is enough to go the whole next 24 hours even with a 30 minute lunch walk and 2-3 hours of pickleball fitness tracking as well as having the always on display on.
Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.
My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit
Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me.
I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking.
Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger)
And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two.
Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
I love how light and comfortable the fitbit air is, but I find that the data quality blows. Both steps and sleep (pretty much the only two things it can really track) are not super accurate when comparing to other devices. Hopefully they can sort it out with software updates
The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout.
I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 940M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case).
The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
I was very surprised by work put into making replacing the battery easy on the Pixel Watch 4. They designed in screw actuated clamps for the back face. Hopefully this carries over to the 5th edition.
I hate having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I'll forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...
Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.
Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone.
Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.
I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.
Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit:
"When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time."
Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
I reluctantly use a pixel with grapheneos, but anything that can only run google or manufacturer provided software without an independent 3rd party is trash, having looked at wearos while trying to refuse Samsungs terms/integration I also consider it a worse grade of trash than a phone since it can intentionally create codependency on other devices for management despite having more processing power than android 2-4 phones had.
It really does feel like such a waste. If I switch to Android I might as well toss my Apple Watch out and vice versa. Along with the fact they basically require the phone to do nearly anything.
Interesting they are still going with round. Most of the UI shots look awkward on a round screen with anything not in the very center getting cut off a bunch.
Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers. But having to charge every day seems like a major regression compared to Garmin. I do appreciate that they are competing on location accuracy, though.
Once again another watch with a utterly useless one day battery, the absolute minimum acceptable should be 3 days to cover a weekend away, only really the ultras (apple and samsung) of the full fat smart watches seem to be doing this.
Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems:
Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends
That is pretty interesting. I am keen to know in the end whether better models or better sensors win this game.
30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day.
I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!
The charger on the 4 both sucks and blows. Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%.
The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band.
WearOS Apps are trash.
I wish I had gone garmin. ;(
I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.
If all you're looking for is a step counter in your watch, check out Casio ABL100WE. The battery lasts for two years (CR2016).
If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.
You sound like the sales rep at the Apple store. I was perplexed.
Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.
I leave my apple watch on a charger for at most 15-20 minutes in the morning and that gets it from the 10-20% in the morning to about 80-90% which is enough to go the whole next 24 hours even with a 30 minute lunch walk and 2-3 hours of pickleball fitness tracking as well as having the always on display on.
Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.
My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit
My WiThings ScanWatch lasts a full month. But it's not a phone-on-my-wrist, it looks more like an analog watch and just has some sensors in it.
Keep in mind Google owns Fitbit and Fitbit has watches with 7 day battery life.
Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.
Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me.
I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking.
Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger)
And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two.
Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
I love how light and comfortable the fitbit air is, but I find that the data quality blows. Both steps and sleep (pretty much the only two things it can really track) are not super accurate when comparing to other devices. Hopefully they can sort it out with software updates
The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout.
I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 940M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case).
The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
I was very surprised by work put into making replacing the battery easy on the Pixel Watch 4. They designed in screw actuated clamps for the back face. Hopefully this carries over to the 5th edition.
https://youtu.be/3pQWBFBIU2U?si=HEefZLDiIurcBj5K&t=61
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+Watch+4+Battery+Re...
I hate having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I'll forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...
Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.
What series are you using? I have the S11 and in 15 minutes it easily charges from 10-20% to 80-90% which gets me through the next 24 hours.
Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone.
[1]: https://gadgetbridge.org/
Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.
Especially when Garmin and some other watches last a week or more.
It's less of a big deal than I thought it'd be.
I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed.
Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.
I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.
But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep
At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches
I charge mine (older Pixel Watch model) when sitting down and coding. Or when showering if on the weekend and not coding. It charges very quickly.
> 30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker.
Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit:
"When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time."
Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
I reluctantly use a pixel with grapheneos, but anything that can only run google or manufacturer provided software without an independent 3rd party is trash, having looked at wearos while trying to refuse Samsungs terms/integration I also consider it a worse grade of trash than a phone since it can intentionally create codependency on other devices for management despite having more processing power than android 2-4 phones had.
It really does feel like such a waste. If I switch to Android I might as well toss my Apple Watch out and vice versa. Along with the fact they basically require the phone to do nearly anything.
Interesting they are still going with round. Most of the UI shots look awkward on a round screen with anything not in the very center getting cut off a bunch.
Google is an ad company. They don't actually want to lose any of the phone screen time on something with lower revenue real estate.
Genuinely I'm more curious what amount (or lack of) governance their is in this version of gemini for health vs asking gemini directly.
i spent an hour the other week looking for my pine watch charger, this may inspire another 20 minutes digging around the house
Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers. But having to charge every day seems like a major regression compared to Garmin. I do appreciate that they are competing on location accuracy, though.
Apparently the GPS is computed in the cloud, which means this only works given LTE coverage or if you also carry your paired smartphone. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pix...
DC Rainmaker has done his own test: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2026/08/google-pixel-watch-5-gps...
> * Up to 30 hours of battery life on the 41mm (40 hours on the 45mm) with fast charging.
Is this a typo? I get 20 days on the Pebble Time 2.
Once again another watch with a utterly useless one day battery, the absolute minimum acceptable should be 3 days to cover a weekend away, only really the ultras (apple and samsung) of the full fat smart watches seem to be doing this.
Still no rectangular phone option. WTF is wrong with Google?
Round watches are not cool. They end up inconvenient and uncomfortable.