We’re less than a day from Google’s official, full reveal of its Pixel Watch wearable, but the leak machine doesn’t stand on ceremony, and the details just keep coming. This week, courtesy of Droid Life, we got a very detailed look at the Pixel Watch’s active-style bands — and they bear a striking similarity to the bands on existing Fitbit devices.
Droid Life says it was able to purchase the bands from an unnamed retailer for $49 apiece, though the bands are no longer available now. Chalk, Charcoal, Obsidian, and Lemongrass bands were available; Droid Life got its hands on Chalk and Lemongrass.
We’ve already seen these bands in promotional material published by Google, but this is the first time we’ve heard impressions from someone who’s actually handled them. Droid Life says the bands are “premium,” describing their quality as “as good if not better than” similar first-party bands offered for the Apple Watch. As noted on the back of the retail packaging, the bands are available in two sizes. The smaller size fits wrists from 130 to 175mm in circumference; the larger fits 165 to 210mm.
If you’ve been following developments around the Pixel Watch, you likely already know the wearable uses proprietary watch bands, but instructional literature included in the bands’ boxes sheds some light on how they actually work. There’s what Google refers to as a “band secure button” inside the grooves the watch band slides into that you’ll have to press when attaching or disconnecting a band. Apparently, you’ll be able to press the button even when the band is in place, which will release the band so it can be removed.
The bands attach with a sort of horizontal sliding motion that we’ve seen demonstrated in Google’s early promo materials, which feature visuals of the watch twisting into place between two band halves. The bands have what look like little metal rails to secure them to the watch’s body, though Droid Life didn’t mention what that particular bit is made of.
We knew this from both leaks and official early imagery, but the Pixel Watch’s active bands look a whole lot like the default silicone straps that come with Fitbit’s Sense and Versa watches, which themselves work like Apple’s watch bands. Looking at the band from the bottom of a wearer’s wrist, the only way you can tell it’s not a Fitbit band is the absence of the Google-owned fitness tracking brand’s emblem. Of course, the bands won’t be interchangeable due to differing connectors.
Left: Pixel Watch band (via Droid Life). Right: Fitbit Versa 3 band.
Aside from a more detailed look at the connector mechanism, Droid Life’s hands-on with the bands doesn’t offer much in the way of new information, or indeed any information at all about the watch itself — the publication was only able to secure the bands, not a full Pixel Watch. If there’s anything you’re still wondering about Google’s smartwatch, though, you don’t have long to wait to find out: it’s set to feature prominently in Google’s hardware event tomorrow.
