Google has introduced its Pixel Watch, bringing together Google and Fitbit’s health and fitness features in a new design.

An extension of the Pixel family, the Google Pixel Watch is designed to be sophisticated for a night out or a business meeting, but can endure activities and workouts, and is pleasant to sleep in.

The circular 3D domed glass blends into the stainless-steel body giving it a slim look on the wrist. It is water-resistant up to five ATM or 50m and scratch-resistant, and is meant to be worn all day and night. The tactile crown controls on-screen scrolling, accesses shortcuts and initiates the app tray to provide helpful information. The side button above the crown opens the most-recently used apps.

The band attach mechanism – inspired by how a camera lens attaches to a camera body – makes it easy to change bands to transform the look of the watch. There are 20 available band choices in woven, stretch, active and leather styles, with metal coming next spring.¹

There are 19 customisable watch faces, each with personalisation options from the colours to the layout and the information needed most. Users can also set favourite photos as the watch face with Google Photos.

It is powered by Wear OS 3.5. With Google Assistant built in, personalised help is available on the go. Users can control smart home devices through the Google Home app or say “Hey, Google” to the watch to adjust the thermostat, turn on or off the lights, and get notifications from a Nest doorbell when a person or package is at the door.

Notifications can be checked from Gmail and Google Calendar, contactless payments made in stores and at transit with Google Wallet, and turn-by-turn directions available with Maps, including an interactive view. There is access to more than 100 million songs with YouTube Music Premium, and users can cache their favourite playlists using 32Gbyte of on-device storage, or stream phone-free over built-in 4G LTE-cellular. They can also access more apps with Google Play Store on their wrist, including Adidas Running, Calm, Spotify, MyFitnessPal and Strava.

With Fast Pair, Pixel Buds will automatically connect to the watch once paired with a phone, and users can start a call on the watch and transition to the phone once in reach. Music playback controls and turn-by-turn directions on the watch are available even if started on the phone.

An emergency SOS feature alerts emergency responders or trusted contacts in an emergency or when the wearer is feeling unsafe. Fall detection is coming in 2023 to sense if the wearer has taken a hard fall, connecting them to emergency services and even auto-dialling if they are unresponsive.

Integration with Fitbit provides health and fitness features, including its most accurate heart rate tracking. With on-device machine learning and deep optimisation down to the processor level, it gives an accurate measurement of heart rate continuously tracking at once per second.

The Fitbit experience has been redesigned for Pixel Watch, with 40 exercise modes available to track favourite workouts and all-day activities including steps, distance with built-in GPS and Active Zone Minutes.

Users can keep tabs on their health with an ECG app to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), better understand sleep with Sleep Score and Sleep Stages, and receive guidance powered by Fitbit’s 20 billion nights tracked.

There are insights into key metrics such as breathing rate, heart rate variability and more all on the Health Metrics Dashboard in the Fitbit app.

With Fitbit Premium, users get deeper insights and access to features such as a daily readiness score so they know when to go all-out in a workout or prioritise rest. More than 1000 workouts and 400 mindfulness sessions are available to help users take action and approach each day based on what their body is telling them.

In addition to compatibility with Pixel phones, Pixel Watch also works with other Android 8.0+ phones and is available in two connectivity configurations: built-in – 4G LTE for phone-free convenience or Bluetooth and wifi only. Google Fi subscribers can set up LTE without additional line fees on most plans. Fast Pair makes it easier to set-up the watch with a Pixel phone, plus existing Fitbit users can pick up where they left off from their current device and won’t lose any stats or personal data.

There is up to 24 hours of battery life, even with all-day continuous per second heart rate, and health and activity tracking. And users can get back 50% battery life in 30 minutes, such as for pre-bedtime charging for sleep tracking.

Availability is starting in nine countries – USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Japan, Australia and Taiwan.