That charging animation is lying to you
Charging the best Android smartwatches and the best fitness trackers on the market right now is a mess. Apart from their bundled charger, there’s no guarantee you will get a consistent charging experience. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 5 series feature WPC-based wireless charging. That means you can use your Galaxy phone to charge your watch, but not most other Android phones, even if they do support reverse wireless charging through Qi. If you were hoping for the Google Pixel Watch to fare better in this department, prepare to be disappointed.
The Pixel Watch’s official specs page makes it clear that it does not support Qi wireless charging. Google also made this clear to editorialists in its review guide for the product. This means you must use the bundled USB-C charging puck to charge it.
Our team has observed, though, that the charging animation does appear on their Pixel Watches when placed on a Qi-supported surface. The battery never gains any power, however, and continues to discharge. There are reports from other Pixel Watch users on Reddit and Twitter with a similar experience. Some were able to get the charging animation to show up using reverse wireless charging on their Pixel 7, but ten seconds after that, the wearable stopped charging.
Google confirmed this odd behavior of the Pixel Watch and doubled down on the lack of Qi charging in a statement to 9to5Google:
Qi charging is not supported on the Google Pixel Watch. There may be some charging configurations where reverse wireless or Qi charging appears to work. This will be very device and charger specific and is not guaranteed to provide a consistent, steady or strong charge. Note that in some cases, this could cause the device to discharge while on charger. Pixel Watch only supports charging with the inbox (sic) charger provided.
This means you’re going to need to carry the Pixel Watch’s magnetic charger with you on holiday and business trips. It’ll especially be a bummer if you’re already packed to the gills.
The Pixel Watch is not the only watch with this charging problem. Unlike smartphones, there is no universal charging standard for smartwatches as companies have devised their own solutions and they all end up being incompatible with each other.
