Mobvoi teases new Wear OS smartwatch reveal

What you need to know

• In a cryptic teaser posted to X (formerly Twitter), Mobvoi shared that a new smartwatch-related announcement is just days away. 
• The smartwatch shown in the teaser suggests that the upcoming announcement is related to the TicWatch Pro line.
• The current-generation TicWatch Pro 5 is almost a year old, so we could be seeing a TicWatch Pro 6 debut.

Mobvoi is back to shake up the week in wearables with an announcement of an announcement. In a teaser posted to X (formerly Twitter) early Wednesday, the company says, "The future arrives in days," hinting at a new smartwatch reveal. The post doesn't reveal much, but it includes an outline of a smartwatch that closely resembles the current TicWatch Pro 5. As such, we could be seeing a successor debut soon or at least a new variant of the current model.

Yearly smartwatch releases are becoming the norm, with Google and Samsung finding a rhythm with an annual update schedule. Mobvoi released the TicWatch Pro 5 at the end of May 2023, so we're due for an upgrade if the company is eyeing an annual upgrade. This, plus the teaser's graphic, seems to suggest that a TicWatch Pro 6 reveal could be just days away. 

While casual smartwatch buyers might not recognize Mobvoi or TicWatch as a household name, it's clear that the TicWatch Pro 5 is a seriously impressive smartwatch. Aside from true multi-day battery life, the watch features a clever dual-screen design. Additionally, it is powered by Qualcomm's best smartwatch chip, the Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen1 platform, which also powers the Pixel Watch 2.

The issue that Mobvoi hasn't been able to solve to date is software support. The TicWatch Pro 5 still doesn't have official Wear OS 4 support, even as we're looking ahead to Wear OS 5. TicWatch Pro 5 users can beta test Wear OS 4 soon — but they have to complete a questionnaire and agree to an NDA. If hardware is the limiting factor here, a new TicWatch Pro 6 could debut with Wear OS 4 and might even include a path to Wear OS 5 when it releases. 

Speaking of Wear OS 5, the operating system upgrade is slated to be released this summer, as Google basically confirmed in its I/O 2024 event schedule. More recently, there have been signs that Samsung is testing Wear OS 5 right now. 

Still, this is all mostly guesswork at the moment. Mobvoi's teaser is likely referencing a new TicWatch Pro device, but we won't know for sure until the official announcement in the coming days.