Google's Pixel Watch will be Tensor-Powered in 2026

Next year, we’re expecting a huge leap in Tensor for Pixel smartphones. But the year after could see another big leap, this time for wearables. As Google is expected to start using a custom Tensor chip for its Pixel Watches in 2026 with the Pixel Watch 5. This is according to Android Authority.

This chipset would use older CPU cores, which is pretty common with wearable chips, as they tend to prioritize efficiency over cutting-edge performance. Not much is known about this chip right now, but we do know that it is likely to use one ARM Cortex-A78 core and two ARM Cortex-A55 cores. Google is also apparently assessing RISC-V as a potential alternative to ARM. The modem is still a mystery at this point.

These cores are pretty old, with the Cortex-A55 having debuted back in 2017, but that is the way to go with wearables. Both Samsung and Qualcomm have been going the same route with their wearable chips. In fact, the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 which is inside the Pixel Watch 3, uses Cortex-A53 cores, which first debuted in 2012.

How will this change Pixel Watch?

How will this move to Tensor change the Pixel Watch going forward? Well, for one, it means Google won’t release the same watch twice with the same processor. The Pixel Watch 2 and 3 both use the same Qualcomm processor. But it will also let Google do more of what it wants to do with Wear OS on Pixel and more with Fitbit, making features work better and exclusive to Pixel.

Lately, we’ve seen quite a few features being exclusive to Pixel, before rolling out to the rest of the Android world. In fact, the foldable features in Android 15, were already available on the first-generation Pixel Fold – which launched with Android 13. Now, we’ll likely see the same thing with Wear OS moving forward.