Google - Pixel Watch 5 (45mm) - Wi-Fi - Matte Black Case - Obsidian Band - S/L - (2026)

As someone moving from the Pixel Watch 3 to the Pixel Watch 5, the generational improvements here are impressive. The appearance is the same as the Watch 4 (from what I understand), but it's clearer and easier to see. What's most impressive is how snappy and quick the watch is. The new processor is clearly an improvement, and while it's too early yet to see how well it ingrates with all things Gemini and Google Health, the early impressions are good. Charging time is excellent and the charge lasts for more than a day under my use, which includes a lot of voice to text and sometimes phone calls.

I upgraded from an old Ticwatch....battery is excellent and looks great

In my honest opinion if you own the PW 4 I wouldn’t upgrade. The only difference is a few new watch faces. Other than that it’s a great smartwatch.

The Pixel 5 is a great watch. I can get two "sleeps" before I have to put it on the charger depending on when it got its last full charge. My purpose for owning the watch is first and foremost, as a WATCH. Consequently, I have the "tilt your wrist to turn on the screen" feature enabled to both save battery but also make sure that the watch shows me the time as soon as I glance at it. The second purpose for the watch is MESSAGING. I work in an active, labor intensive job...where we have to text one another a fair amount. Grabbing my phone to see the latest message isn't always convenient. Being able to see glance at my watch when my hands are full to see a text reply is often easier than setting things down, grabbing my phone from my pocket, unlocking my phone, then reading the text. The Pixel 5 screen is both big enough and bright enough for this 54yr old who occasionally wears 1.25x readers to read a message without glasses. Voice to text replies straight from the watch (via bluetooth connection with my phone) are also handy, however, the tiny little keyboard to type a reply is fairly impractical for me. Third, I own this watch for the HEALTH stats. I wear it to bed about 50% of the time and appreciate the data it records, although I will always be skeptical of the data. I wear it during workouts (usually biking or exercise walking) and again, find it easier than pulling out the phone when I receive an alert. I had been satisfied with the GPS on the Pixel 4, but supposedly the GPS on the Pixel 5 is even better. Because I never had problems before, I can't really say I notice a difference. Another "peace of mind" feature (fortunately) not tested is the emergency monitoring (i.e. loss of pulse and breathing issues). Nice to think that if I run into trouble, the watch is going to do something...although I am not 100% sure what. I have configured them in the app on my phone, and I know I can manually trigger the SOS feature by pressing the crown rapidly 5x in a row, but I haven't. I am not 100% certain, but I feel like something changed with the health screens on the Pixel 5. Regardless, they are very easy to read and navigate on the watch itself and while there doesn't seem to be a standard algorithm for determining your health, the device is good for tracking TRENDS in your sleep, O2, activity, heart rate, etc. There are so many health and fitness things the watch can monitor and send to the Google Heath app on your phone for analysis, I can't dive into them all except to say that they can really help you track trends in your activity and health. I do NOT use the watch as a phone. In fact, I turned that feature off because I had run into problems with my Pixel 4 "taking calls" rather than my phone or earbuds. It got too confusing to figure out where sound was coming from and what microphone was picking up my voice. "FIND MY PHONE" from the watch is insanely helpful though, as I tend to sometimes leave my phone sitting somewhere on-site when working. The watch lets me know when I stray too far from my phone and, of course, I can send an "alarm" to the phone to help find it if it is under the car seat or in the cushions of the couch. Not only does the watch have really good battery life, you can throw it on the charger for 10-15 minutes to get plenty of charge to help get you through an evening without having to wait an hour for a full charge. I also like to use it to Google Pay or show my boarding pass when getting on a plane. Although I rely on the touch sensors of my headphones or earbuds to skip songs or pause music, I like to be able to glance at my watch to see what song is playing. Of course, I can fully control my YouTube Music from the watch if I want. I've also played around with using the watch to control the camera on my phone. Lastly, this watch is very stylish and comfortable to wear. I jumped on Amazon and got a 5-pack of soft TPU screen protectors (not rigid, hardness protectors because the Pixel watch has a curve to it that does not work well with 9H screen protectors) just because my work environment attracts scratches. The watch still works great with the TPU film over the screen. The band is comfortable and easy to swap out for other colors or styles. If you have a Pixel 3 or earlier watch, or you are looking to dive right in and get your first smart watch, the Pixel 5 is the way to go. However, unless you are a health/fitness freak, I am not certain you necessarily gain a ton from the Pixel 4 to the Pixel 5 as the style, screen, battery life, etc. are essentially the same. Regardless, I highly recommend the Pixel watch for its battery life, stylishness, comfort, GPS accuracy, health and safety features, responsiveness, brightness, simplicity and general "makes life a bit easier" functionality. One last thought, I have gotten it wet in a pool, in a hot tub, in the ocean, in a lake, in the shower, and while power washing the house. I have not had any problems. I do think it is cool how the watch will automatically turn on a "water" lock so as to not have a drop of water accidentally activate an app. In order to break out of "water mode" manually, you hold the crown down for a couple seconds until the watch makes a bubbling sound.

This Pixel watch is loaded with great features. It's terrific for health & fitness but there's much more to it than that. There's an endless supply of colorful and customizable watch faces sorted into various categories like Data Dense, Health & Fitness, Playful and more. There's an Arts & Culture face selection that rotates a picture on a daily basis. It's very cool! You can choose what type and how much information (called "Complications") is displayed on the watch face, depending on which face you select. You can also add your own photos to display. The watch face is Gorilla Glass, and the "Active" band is a durable nitrile rubber. Paired with the Google Health Premium app you get not just tracking (the watch has built-in GPS), it's all personalized and interactive with Gemini AI. Automatically get progress reports on fitness goals, sleep metrics, recovery & readiness. You can give and get feedback and recommendations. Once you start in with it, it's kind of addictive. I look forward to every morning getting my sleep & readiness scores and advice for the day. You can interact with the built-in Gemini AI on the watch. There's a "raise wrist to talk" option that can be activated. Ask it anything, you'll get a quick verbal response that's also generated on the screen. And you can make & receive phone calls on the watch. Also very cool and very convenient! The watch starts up with a default set of widgets, but you can choose to delete or add as you like from a list. Widgets include Focus Metrics, Exercise Quick Launch, Favorite Contacts, Calendar Events and Tasks, Heart Rate, Timer, Alarm, Weather, Recorder, Notes, YouTube Music and more. The watch comes with a small and large band and the quick charge dock attached to a USB-C cable. Bottom line it's a high-quality watch loaded with great features.