The LG Watch W7 is rumored to be a full smartwatch with mechanical hands and it could be coming very soon.
Update: The LG Watch Timepiece may finally see the light of day, but with a whole new name. Rumors suggest it’ll be called the LG Watch W7 and will launch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ on October 3.
LG has a new watch on the way and this one’s apparently analog. Wait! Don’t go! It’s also digital, with both a Wear OS -powered screen and mechanical hands.
The upshot is you should be able to get full smartwatch functionality and, when the battery inevitably dies, still know what time it is.
We’ve also heard rumors about some of the other specs and features, all of which you’ll find below, along with information on the likely-imminent release date.
We’d originally heard that LG may launch two watches at the same time, but since then we’ve only heard of the watch originally referred to as the LG Watch Timepiece and now rumors suggest it’ll be called the LG Watch W7 when it’s on shop shelves.
LG’s last Android Wear devices (the LG Watch Style and LG Watch Sport) both landed well over a year ago, so we’re due some Wear OS watches from the company.
It was previously rumored that the LG Watch Timepiece would launch on April 30,2018. That, of course, didn’t happen so we thought Google IO 2018 was a possibility… but that didn’t happen either.
The latest release rumor suggests it’ll launch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ, which is set to be announced on October 3 at an event in New York.
Two LG smartwatch models have previously passed through the FCC (US Federal Communications Commission) and that suggests the Timepiece – or some kind of wearable – is coming very soon.
We have less idea about the price, but based on the rumored specs and features it might land somewhere between the LG Watch style, which launched at $249/£229, and the LG Watch Sport, which started at $349, so perhaps the LG Watch W7 will be roughly $300/£300 (around AU$400)?
The name of LG’s upcoming smartwatch is currently a little unclear. For some time we’d heard rumors it’d be called the LG Watch Timepiece, but a new report from trusted Twitter leaker Evan Blass suggests the name has changed for its official release.
Blass believes it’ll be called the LG Watch W7. Exactly why the company has gone for that as a name is unclear, and we don’t currently know what the number will refer to.
Originally we’d heard there would be two different watches – plus two passed through the FCC – but it looks like it’ll just be the one device for now. It may be there are two different sizes of the same watch, or we may hear of a Timepiece branded device in future instead.
The first leak for the LG Watch Timepiece was a big one, detailing most of the specs and features.
According to Android Headlines, the Timepiece will run Wear OS, but as well as a screen it will have mechanical hands. That will allow it to keep telling the time for much longer between charges, with its apparently 240mAh battery said to keep the clock ticking for up to 100 days in its most basic time-telling mode, apparently dubbed ‘Watch Mode’.
Use the LG Watch Timepiece as a proper smartwatch and it can still supposedly keep telling the time for up to 100 hours once its main battery has died.
We’ve seen a similar combination of real hands and a smartwatch display on the MyKronoz ZeTime, but it’s interesting to see a big brand like LG embracing the idea of fusing the two technologies.
The same source says that the LG Watch Timepiece will have a 1.2-inch 360 x 360 LCD screen, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and dimensions of 45.5 x 45.4 x 12.9mm, and will be available in New Aurora Black and Cloud Silver. All of which is a fairly standard assortment of specs for a Wear OS device.
It also says the watch will come with a Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset inside. That’s what we’ve seen power a variety of Wear OS watches over the last two years, but i t isn’t the most recent processor from Qualcomm.
Fingers crossed this has changed and instead we’ll see the latest Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset inside.
If not, all of this sounds very similar to the LG Watch Style from a specs perspective, but with 50% more RAM and a thicker build. Like its stylish predecessor, the LG Watch Timepiece will also apparently lack GPS and NFC though.
One FCC filing we’ve seen calls the device the LM-W315, which makes sense considering the last two watches from LG were both called the LM-W280 and LM-W270.
That same FCC document also suggests LG is working on a major UI change for upcoming watches that will give it a circular carousel app list rather than the vertical scroll on most Android Wear / Wear OS watches.
It’ll mean the apps on your watch work in a similar way to the Samsung Gear Sport or Gear S3, and this may be an introduction for the LG Watch W7 when it launches.
The testing from the FCC was for both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but there’s no sign of LTE on this particular model. It may be LG plans to have a separate device with mobile internet capabilities, but we’ve yet to see that in an FCC filing if so.
Interestingly, we have also seen a second filing, this time for a watch dubbed the LM-W319, but this one makes no mention of LTE either, so it’s not clear what the difference between the two will be.
The LG Watch W7 might be landing soon, and when it does we hope it has the following features.
One of the biggest problems with smartwatches in general and with the LG Watch Style specifically is battery life, and we mention the Style because the LG Watch W7 is rumored to have a battery of the same size. That’s a worry.
While we may be able to keep using it as a watch for far longer, thanks to the rumored mechanical hands, we really want to get more than a day’s use out of the smartwatch functions, so hopefully that will be possible here.
Rumors suggest the LG Watch W7 won’t have GPS or NFC, but we hope they’re wrong, as without them its ‘smart’ functionality will be limited.
NFC is needed for contactless payments, while GPS is necessary to track runs and other excursions. Sure, you can use your phone for both, but that can be less convenient and means having to carry your phone with you even when you’re out on a jog.
One thing we don’t know much about yet is the design of the LG Watch W7, though the rumored dimensions of 45.
