Microsoft has not announced a smartwatch (and other odd Sunday sundries)

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It's Sunday afternoon, and I just landed in Los Angeles, and while it's a quiet news day, that's because E3 is about to kick off, specifically with Microsoft's big presser tomorrow morning (more on that later). Although not much is happening now, my inbox is getting hit with bogus "Microsoft announced a Smartwatch" tips and now a website I've never heard of is claiming to have seen the smartwatch "a number of months ago."

Let's clear up a few things …

  • Microsoft is very likely working on a Smartwatch that will compete with Android Wear and the Moto 360 and Apple's iWatch, we've seen that from patents, informed rumors, and it is the obvious thing for them to do (Nokia was in on the action too)
  • If they do have a Smartwatch, it probably looks a lot like the Windows Phone and Windows 8 and Xbox One UI, because you know, duh
  • It will have Bluetooth 4.0 LE because…that's what smartwatches use these days
  • It will have sensors that can do all sorts of cool things

See, I can name all of that without even seeing this watch myself. What I'm trying to say is, this supposed sighting "a few months ago" from the site GearLive, has some mildly interesting descriptions of this supposed device, but we're going on evidently old information without any proof. (If seen a few months ago, why are we learning about it now?)

Microsoft patent?

What's more, I don't know anything about this site outside of the fact they're not a source with a well tracked history of confirmed rumors. Maybe it's real, maybe it's not, but I see no reason to trust it than to not believe it, which means it's a non-story.

Would Microsoft announce a Smartwatch tomorrow here at E3? I don't see why they would. Every time Microsoft has a big device or service launch what do they do? They hold a special event, usually in New York, where they have everyone's attention. That's the exact opposite of E3, and this event is no place for announcing a new device category for the company.

In closing, I wouldn't put too much stock in these claims about a Microsoft Smartwatch. Yes, I'm confident that they're making one, but like the Surface Mini, not everything about this tale is known at this point, making it mere speculation.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and wearable tech. He has reviewed laptops for over 10 years and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, Arm64 processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, performed polysomnographs in NYC, and was a motion-picture operator for 17 years.