Antonio Villas-Boas/Business InsiderIn just a few weeks, Samsung will reportedly introduce the Galaxy Watch, its latest entry into the smartwatch game.
But on Monday, the electronics maker may have accidentally ruined the big reveal.
The smartwatch showed up on Samsung’s website Monday morning and was spotted by CNET’s Scott Stein. Samsung’s listing showed a rose gold, 42-mm watch labeled “Galaxy Watch,” right next to Samsung’s Gear S2 watch.
The listing has since been removed from Samsung’s website.
Samsung isn’t new to the world of smartwatches; its first watch, the Galaxy Gear, came out in 2013. Since then, Samsung has added the Gear S2, the Gear S3, and the Gear Sport to its lineup, along with a slew of fitness trackers.
But this year is slightly different for a few reasons.
For one, Samsung will reportedly ditch “Gear” from the name and simply call it the Galaxy Watch. Samsung all but confirmed that that’s the new name on Monday.
For another, Samsung has recently gone out of its way to taunt Apple, creating several ads that pit the two companies against each other. While that battle has mostly been confined to the realm of premium smartphones, it seems as though Samsung is now targeting Apple in other areas too — the rumored Bixby smart speaker, which would compete with Apple’s HomePod, and now a smartwatch to compete with the Apple Watch.
In fact, all signs point to the Galaxy Watch having many features similar to the Apple Watch, like cellular connectivity, color options, and a built-in smart assistant.
Here’s everything we’ve heard so far about the Samsung Galaxy Watch:
Past versions of Samsung’s smartwatch have been under Samsung’s “Gear” branding. But this year, Samsung is renaming it the Galaxy Watch.
Since introducing its line of smartwatches in 2013, Samsung has stuck with the Gear branding, coming out with the Gear S2, the Gear S3, and the Gear Sport.
But a Federal Communications Commission patent filing suggests the new watch will be called the Galaxy Watch, a move most likely meant to put it more in line with Samsung’s popular line of Galaxy smartphones.
The Galaxy Watch will have a 1.2-inch display, which is about the same size as the Samsung Gear Sport.
Citing the FCC filing, Droid Life reported that the Galaxy Watch case would measure 51.2 mm by 43.4 mm, while the display will be 30.2 mm, or about 1.2 inches.
Samsung’s most recent smartwatch, the Gear Sport, also has a 1.2-inch display.
Past Samsung watches have usually come in two colors, but the Galaxy Watch will come in three.
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The Galaxy Watch will come in silver, gold, and black, according to a report from SamMobile.
That’s one more color than past Samsung watches. The Gear S3 comes in two options — the black Gear S3 Frontier and the silver Gear S3 Classic — while the newer Gear Sport comes in black and blue.
Adding a third color would put the Galaxy Watch more in line with the Apple Watch, which also comes in black (or “space gray”), silver, and gold.
And we now know rose gold is one of the colors.
In the listing on Samsung’s website, the watch not only appears to be rose gold — it says it right in the title of the listing.
The Galaxy Watch will run Samsung’s smartwatch operating system, Tizen OS.
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Though recent reports have hinted that Samsung might be abandoning its smartwatch operating system in favor of Google’s Wear OS, that’s most likely not the case.
According to reports from ZDNet and SamMobile, Samsung will be keeping its Tizen operating system for the new Galaxy Watch. That means the new Galaxy Watch is likely to have many of the same features as the Gear Sport and the Gear S3, like notifications, Samsung Pay, music, and alarms.
Samsung’s smart assistant, Bixby, will be built into the Galaxy Watch.
According to The Verge, Samsung’s latest smartwatch operating system, Tizen 4.0, is likely to add support for Samsung’s smart assistant, Bixby.
Bixby has had something of a fraught history. When the feature launched on the Galaxy S8 last year, it wasn’t quite finished yet, and anyone who bought the phone was initially saddled with a smart assistant that couldn’t perform many of the features Samsung had promised.
Since then, Bixby seems to have shaped up, though it still isn’t on par with smart assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa.
The Galaxy Watch will have better battery life than the Gear S3.
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The Galaxy Watch is likely to get a few hours of extra battery life, thanks to a larger battery.
According to a post from the leaker Ice Universe, which we saw on 9to5 Google, the new watch will have a 470-mAh battery; compared with the 380-mAh battery in the Gear S3, the Galaxy Watch’s larger battery should give it about two full days of battery life.
The Galaxy Watch will have LTE support, and it will work with any carrier.
Like the Apple Watch Series 3, the Galaxy Watch will have cell service, Droid Life reported, citing FCC patent filings.
Droid Life also noticed that the Galaxy Watch will work with AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon — so either Samsung plans to sell the watch through all four carriers or unlocked.
The Galaxy Watch is set to be announced at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked and will most likely be released on August 24.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Samsung
The good news is that we won’t have to wait long for the Galaxy Watch.
According to ZDNet, Samsung is planning to announce the watch alongside the Galaxy Note 9 at its Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event on August 9 and make it available on August 24.
