OnePlus Watch set to launch March 23rd — here's the proof

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By Alan Martin
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OnePlus Watch all but confirmed for March 23 reveal

OnePlus Watch
(Image credit: The Score)

We’ve long suspected that OnePlus would finally enter the wearables market this year. Now, the company has all but confirmed that a OnePlus Watch is on the way, set to launch alongside the OnePlus 9 family on March 23.

First there was this tweet from OnePlus, which leaves very little to creative interpretation. 

Then the company went even further on its own forum, promising a “fresh addition to the OnePlus family” which is “healthy, punctual and even takes care of you while you sleep.”

Unless the company has been working on a hybrid robot butler/personal trainer on the sly, that sounds very much like a wearable. The post even goes as far as to add that it’s guessable from bad puns in the text — text that includes phrases like “watch this space” and “the clock is ticking.” 

You won’t get any more hints from the other comments in the forum, though, as it becomes a “wrong answers only” game for members to guess what the mystery product might be. Nine lucky winners will get a free one when it’s released —  whatever it may be.

Rumors that OnePlus would release its own smartwatch go back years, mainly because the company almost did, back in 2014. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei told our sister site TechRadar that the company developed both a fitness tracker and Bluetooth speaker, but cancelled both at the last minute. "We asked ourselves, what is the goal? We decided we needed to focus on smartphones, to ensure we're launching quality products and leave the wearables and speakers to the people who know what they're doing,” he said, justifying the move.

Now, it’s safe to say that the company is considerably happier straying beyond its smartphone comfort zone. Not only does OnePlus have its own Bullet earbuds, but the company has branched out into the TV market. 

We don’t know what the OnePlus Watch will look like yet. While past designs, like the one in the tweet above, indicate that a round face is on the cards, it’s worth noting that the company’s sister company Oppo has released a wearable that looks a lot more like the Apple Watch. While the two companies operate independently, their handsets have certainly shared design cues in the past; just compare and contrast the Oppo Find X2 Pro and the OnePlus 8 Pro.          

All will be revealed on March 23, along with no fewer than three OnePlus phones. It’s set to be by far the biggest launch event the company has had to date.   

Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.