OnePlus Watch confirmed to be coming soon

Almost anyone makes a smartwatch these days. In addition to Wear OS opening the doors for many manufacturers to jump in, others have also tried to pave their own path in the wearable market. We've seen the likes of OPPO and Xiaomi take a stab at this market and it might not be long before OnePlus joins its peers and rivals, finally bringing a product to life that may have been half a decade in the making.

Rumors of OnePlus jumping into the smartwatch scene started way back in 2014, exactly around the time the startup launched its highly-successful OnePlus One. Dubbed the "OneWatch" back then, it was already hinted to carry a round face, something that was, at that time, still uncommon and almost revolutionary.

The company's smartwatch ambitions were confirmed by co-founder Carl Pei in 2016 but the revelation came with the sad news that the plan was scrapped. He showed sketches from 2015 that confirmed the wearable's circular body but also said it will never be.

Never say "never", though, and now OnePlus India quotes Pei while also giving hope that the OnePlus smartwatch, which probably won't be called OneWatch now, is still coming. It uses one of the earlier sketches, suggesting that the overall design hasn't changed to adopt the square body of its cousin OPPO's first smartwatch.

"It's only a matter of time", the tweet says, leaving open the question of when. A better question, however, is what value will a OnePlus Watch add to the already oversaturated smartwatch market. Five or six years ago, the answer could have been easier to come by. We'll have to bid our time to see OnePlus' wearable vision in reality.