A new smartwatch device has been spotted online that is thought to be a forthcoming Pixel Watch, but not the Pixel Watch 3.
It could instead be an entry-level Pixel Watch 2a, with a cheaper price to match.
Google might be working on more than one new smartwatch, according to a recent report.
With widespread rumours about the likelihood of a replacement for the Pixel Watch 2 being very much on the way (in two sizes), it now seems there might be a third option in the works, too.
9to5Google has spotted an FCC listing that appears to show a Wear OS watch being made by Google, but this comes much earlier than you would typically expect for the Pixel Watch 3, which shouldn't arrive until the end of summer.
The clincher, in this case, is that the listing carries instructions for where to find its on-device FCC E-label, and these are almost identical to the ones carried by the existing Pixel Watch devices.
This makes it seem extremely likely that this is another watch in the range, but a few other differences make it unlikely to be the Pixel Watch 3. There's no ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, for starters, which has been widely reported as a flagship feature for the Pixel Watch 3.
So, what is it? Well, the word is that this could be a Pixel Watch 2a, following the naming conventions of Google's actual phones to offer a cut-price option of similar hardware halfway through a device's life-cycle.
It could therefore undercut the Pixel Watch 2 when (if) it arrives, in pricing terms at least, but offer a very similar experience, perhaps with some shortcuts or weaker processing power.
There have been little to no reports to corroborate this yet, though, as mentioned by 9to5Google. So, it remains possible that this will turn out to be something else, another part of Google's hardware empire.
If it is indeed something like a Pixel Watch 2a, the wearable will apparently come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LTE connectivity, giving it the option of working without a tethered smartphone in at least some circumstances.
Quite what methods Google might use to keep its price lower than the Pixel Watch 2, though, are hard to guess, beyond a potential downgrade to the chipset powering it all.
With Google I/O just a few weeks away, though, it might well be the case that we learn some more about it there.
