A Wear OS-powered Samsung Galaxy Watch is coming – here's proof

If you've been keeping up with Samsung Galaxy smartwatch rumours (and, quite frankly, who hasn't?) you'll have seen the recent rumour that Samsung is considering dropping its homegrown wearable operating system, Tizen, in favour of Google's Wear OS.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've heard this rumour – it comes around almost every year, but now it looks like we have proof that Samsung is, indeed, working on a Wear OS watch.

• Best smartwatch: top wearables reviewed and rated
• Best Apple Watch: which model should you buy?

XDA developer ivan_meler has been digging through the Galaxy S20‘s latest source code release and found a new device code-named “Merlot” in the Wi-Fi driver alongside references to 'Wear OS'.

Now, obviously, that name doesn't mean much on its own, but the fact that it's alongside references to Wear OS does seem to suggest Samsung is working on a Google-powered smartwatch.

That's very little to go on, but it is the first official leak from Samsung, as opposed to information from tipsters and unnamed sources.

Very little else is know about the smartwatch, aside from the fact that the codename Merlot is expected to use Broadcom’s BCM43013 combination Bluetooth/WiFi chip, which also features in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean Samsung is ditching Tizen altogether (in fact, we think that would be a foolish thing to do), but it could be that it's launching a Wear OS variant of a smartwatch, to test the waters and provide consumers with more options.

Ultimately, both Tizen and Wear OS require a lot of work before they can take on the smartwatch Goliath that is the Apple Watch.

Liked this?

• Best smartwatch for kids