Long story short, Android smartwatches used to be beholden to Qualcomm chips — and Qualcomm took its dandy time making processors that could keep up with the competition. (The Snapdragon Wear 2100, 3100, and 4100 were not great, Bob.) It wasn’t until Google and Samsung teamed up to create Wear OS 3 in 2021 that Qualcomm really started to feel the pressure. That chip problem manifested in Google’s own Pixel Watch lineup. The first watch was powered an older Samsung Exynos chip before the Pixel Watch 2 switched over Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5. However, Qualcomm last launched a new wearable chip in 2022 and it’s been crickets since.