OnePlus undoubtedly hoped the release of its newest smartwatch had gone smoother. After delaying the launch, the company released the watch right at the peak of tariff drama. The watch debuted at a higher $500 price in the US, but OnePlus now says that after some adjustments, it is able to bring the price down by $150, and it’s staying there.
OnePlus, which is part of the Chinese megacorp Oppo, announced the OnePlus Watch 3 in early 2025. The first batch of units to roll off the line went out to reviewers, who promptly noticed that the underside featured a prominent typo, reading “Meda in China” instead of “Made in China.” OnePlus delayed the release to fix the issue.
That brings us to early April and the onslaught of tariffs, which are still hanging over the US economy. OnePlus finally released the watch, but it did so with a $500 price tag “due to the current market conditions.”
Following years of speculation, Apple finally announced its intention to enter the smartwatch sector in September 2014, releasing the first Apple Watch the following year on April 24.
Exactly a decade on, now is as good a time as any to revisit the ads that gave everyone their very first look at Apple’s debut smartwatch.
The first ad (top) was the big reveal that took place in the fall of 2014, offering interested folks their first look at the upcoming device. Apple’s characteristically slick video kicks off by showing the Apple Watch at close quarters — so close in fact that it’s impossible to make out any true watch-like features.
It’s not until about 40 seconds in that we get the first glimpse of the display, along with the Digital Crown used for scrolling, zooming, and reaching the home screen, among other functions. Next comes confirmation of the Apple Watch’s square design, a look that many analysts and insiders had been expecting.
Apple’s choice of a square shape was distinctive and has become a key part of the watch’s identity. Commentators at the time noted that the square design was more efficient for showing text, notifications, and app content compared to a circular screen, though many rival smartwatches have managed just fine with a round display.
As Apple’s ad progresses, we see more of the watch, including the case and various straps. The appearance of the gold and rose gold cases offer an early hint at the company’s ambitions for a line of luxury Apple Watches — a line that it later dropped.
The second ad (below) came out in March 2015, a month before the watch’s release. This one focused more on the device’s apps and features, and perhaps most surprising is how familiar they still look today.
Over the years, Apple has slimmed down the Apple Watch and given it a larger display. It also introduced the more affordable Apple Watch SE in 2020 and the larger, more rugged Apple Watch Ultra in 2022.
The tech giant is expected to stick to its annual upgrade cycle with the Apple Watch Series, so look out for the 11th edition later this year, most likely in September.
One of my favorite things about Huaqiangbei, the world’s craziest tech market, is the diverse range of wares available in its various stalls. Visit this market in Shenzhen, China, and you’ll find thousands of small retailers selling a wide range of products, with the majority being branded or inspired by Apple.
I found $9 AirPods Pro that were original and a great bargain, as well as a host of drones and other tech products. The strangest purchase? This $12 Apple Watch Series 10, which resembles the original Apple Watch at least until you start using it.
Here’s the story of a bizarre Apple Watch Series 10, which is, in fact, an Apple Watch, but also definitely isn’t.
Apple Watch in name and style
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
If you saw this on someone’s wrist, you’d immediately think it was an original Apple Watch. It features the same large display, digital crown, and power key that you’ll find on an official Apple Watch.
Turn it over, and it also appears to be an official product, although it lacks some of the hallmarks that you’ll notice when you place it next to an authentic one. It features a ceramic case, a heart rate monitor, and comes with a sport band that is identical to an official Apple product.
When you turn it on, there’s no setup; instead, it boots directly into the homescreen, which resembles Watch OS. Even the app drawer features the same zoomed-out view as on Apple’s products.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
There’s a host of apps that all feature the same icons as the Apple Watch and work well. There are also a few apps you won’t find preloaded on an Apple Watch, such as Alipay, which is one of the two super apps used by everyone in China in every part of daily life. There are also shameless copies of most Watch OS apps, including Activity, Workout, Messages, and much more.
You could be fooled into thinking that this is an official Apple Watch. However, once you start to dig in further, you’ll quickly notice that it’s not an official Apple Watch.
But not in nature
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
The most appealing thing about the Apple Watch is its connectivity to your iPhone. The least appealing thing about this Apple Watch? There’s no way to connect it to your phone, at least that I have found.
To pair it, you first have to go into a settings menu that tries to mimic Watch OS, but fails miserably. Instead of the general menu, you have a universal menu, which is the result of a bad translation from Mandarin to English.
At the bottom, there is an option to pair with a new phone, which generates a QR code that you need to scan with an app. However, there is no indication of which app to use for scanning. If you simply use your phone’s camera, it redirects you to a random Google search, which is the default behavior for most phones when they cannot recognize the endpoint for the QR code URL. I spent an hour trying to find a way to connect this, but to no avail.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
Beyond the lack of a companion app, there are also a few other notable aspects. The haptics are strange and activate in two stages. The touch response on the screen is considerably poorer than that of Apple’s products. There’s also a host of apps that are downright strange and do very little, such as one that lets you make it an AI Watch, whatever that means.
Despite this, some people would be happy using this as their watch, especially given its price and a few of its features.
Apple could learn from this imitation
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
As shocking as it sounds, Apple could learn from this watch. First, the app drawer features a kaleidoscope view that allows you to cycle through all installed apps in a more intuitive and user-friendly manner than the list or grid views, which are also available. Second, this Watch has slightly better step counting than the original Apple Watch Series 10 on my other wrist.
The biggest surprise is that, aside from notifications and phone connection, this is fundamentally a good watch. It accurately displays the time, and the fitness and activity features work. Although it lacks the polish of an official product, and you’ll likely never receive an update, it’s available for a fraction of the price.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
Dubbed the Watch S10 Pro, it’s not a Pro watch and doesn’t offer the full experience of an Apple Watch, but could be ideal as a starter watch for a child or if you’re extremely limited by budget. After all, it costs less than 5% of a real Apple Watch and offers considerably more than a $10 watch you could buy anywhere else. For most people, that’s a worthwhile trade-off, even if it won’t be making its way onto any best smartwatches list anytime soon.
For years I’ve recommended Garmin devices over Fitbit. Why? While Garmin’s devices cost a fair amount more than Fitbit’s, I always saw the additional outlay of a subscription cost as being worth the extra upfront cost to avoid. After all, a fitness device has the potential of lasting a very long time without an upgrade, and Fitbit’s $13 a month fee really starts to build up after a while.
But then Garmin did the unthinkable — it added a subscription fee, locking features behind a paywall and personally stabbing me in the back.
Alright, so maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But I was a bit annoyed. And that feeling of annoyance lasted all the way until I got to try the features for myself while testing the Garmin Vivoactive 6, and discovered that some of the features I was convinced would be pointless, are actually pretty good. But even so, it’s not an essential buy — and that’s very good indeed.
Garmin’s new AI is a bit pointless
I was, despite my earlier annoyance, I was excited to try out Garmin’s new features. And of all the new features on offer, the one I was most looking forward to using was Garmin’s artifici— sorry, “Active Intelligence”. According to Garmin’s description, its AI will recommend exercises and insights based on my health and physical data. Sounds great! I love insights and being told what to do.
Mark Jansen / Digital TrendsMark Jansen / Digital Trends
So far it’s told me that, after two bad nights sleeping six hours each, I’m tired and should go to bed earlier. It’s also told me that, at 11am, I still have time to walk some more. Hardly ground-breaking stuff.
I can see what they want this feature to achieve. It’s clear Garmin wants this to be your personal pocket cheerleader and coach in one, and with time and more development, it’s possible it might get there. But at the moment, it isn’t saying much me. If it was just a little extra feature Garmin had thrown in, I’d find it a cute little oddity. As a paid product? Like many AI-driven products, it’s a disappointment. Would I want to pay for this? Even at just $7 it’s not much to write home about.
One is a game-changer
Oddly, it’s the other features that I had dismissed that have impressed me.
Being able to make changes to a workout while it’s underway is a great addition. It’s only useful for certain activities; it has little use during runs for instance, but it’s excellent when lifting weights. One of my previous frustrations with fitness tracking and weightlifting is that correcting numbers of lifts, or the weight being lifted, can be fiddly. Poking a tiny watch screen isn’t the easiest way to fix a problem, especially during a short rest period, and being able to do it from a phone screen is much better. Plus, your phone’s screen shows the number of lifts, heart rate, and other live stats. If you’re a frequent weightlifter or gym-goer, it’s a reason to consider the subscription.
Mark Jansen / Digital TrendsMark Jansen / Digital Trends
The others aren’t as compelling, but they definitely fall into the “nice to have” category. Extra challenges and badges are good, but not worth paying for. I’m also not hugely keen on the idea of Garmin’s coaches taking a look at my running training plans. I work from home to avoid people, and I didn’t go to those lengths just to let far fitter people judge my running skills. I had enough of that during school sports days, thanks.
The last new feature worth noting is the additions to LiveTrack. Now, when you set out on a run, LiveTrack can automatically ping your chosen contacts. Honestly, I like this feature, but it definitely sticks in the craw that something so safety-based is a paid feature. It feels like something like this should be included for free.
It’s not for everyone, but that’s great
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends
Probably the best part of these new additions is that they’re all just that: Additions. Nothing has been taken away from you, and everything you enjoyed about Garmin Connect is still available for free. Really, it’s the best way to introduce a paywall. It avoids resentment by taking away features you might used, and subtly tempts you with some fun new toys.
Is it tempting enough? This is an early reaction at the very start of my time with the new Vivoactive 6, and my views may well change, but at the moment, I’m going to say no. There are a few instances where it’s stand-out excellent — live stats for weightlifting is an actual game-changer, and a genuine reason to pay $7 a month. But for everything else? It’s hard to justify it for casual runners, swimmers, or gym-goers. More serious athletes will find value here, especially in the coaching and live changes, but personally, it’s best to view it as a fun optional extra, rather than a must-buy.
Why does that make me so happy? Because it means that Garmin has successfully kept everything that made Connect so good before the subscription fee. Nothing has been lost, and you only have to gain. And that’s exactly how it should be.
After modest success with its first two smartwatches, OnePlus was poised to release a third-generation smartwatch early this year. Unfortunately, the company had to delay the Watch 3 from February to April, and now the previously announced $330 price tag is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the OnePlus Watch 3 has launched at an eye-watering $500, and you can probably guess why.
The OnePlus Watch 3 was all set for release a few months ago, but early reviewers spotted an embarrassing typo on the device. Like most smartwatches, OnePlus printed the watch’s key specs on the bottom of the housing. Part of that text was supposed to read “Made in China,” but instead, it said “Meda in China.” Oops.
OnePlus delayed the launch so it could correct the mistake on retail units. However, the US-China trade relationship has deteriorated dramatically in the intervening weeks. Since the watch is meda made in China, it is subject to tariffs—the amount of Trump’s China tariffs is changing on an almost daily basis, but it’s currently 145 percent.
These sensors, however, come with an inherent set of problems. Motion artifacts arising from movement or vigorous activity alter the blood flow and affect their accuracy. Optical heart rate sensors (photoplethysmography or PPG tech) also struggle with darker skin tones, tattoos, or even body placement.
Nature comes to the rescue, again
The solution to these woes – and more – could come from deep within the oceanic bed. Scientists at the University of Missouri have developed a starfish-shaped wearable device that can measure heart rate in real-time. The device is inspired by the arm movements of a starfish and features multiple sensor-to-skin connection points.
University of Missouri / Science
The biggest advantage of this approach is that it can negate the motion challenges and measure heart rate activity more accurately. The multi-sensor format allows the device to collect multi-signal data with higher precision, even when users are engaged in physical activity.
“Similar to a starfish, our device has five arms, each equipped with sensors that simultaneously capture both electrical and mechanical heart activity,” notes Sicheng Chen, lead author of the paper detailing the innovation.
Immense promise for cardiac wellness
The device collects cardiac electrical (electrocardiogram) and mechanical (seismocardiogram and gyrocardiogram) signals using its sensor array. The team also developed a machine learning model to compensate for motion variables and analyze heart signals from multiple points.
In their tests, it was able to accurately detect serious heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), myocardial infarction MI), and heart failure (HF). So far, no mass market wearable device is able to collectively detect the three aforementioned cardiac problems.
University of Missouri / Science
“Human studies demonstrate that integrating these multimodal biosignals significantly enhances diagnostic accuracy, achieving more than 91% accuracy for various heart conditions—surpassing models that rely on fewer inputs,” says the research paper published in the Science journal.
Charging hassles, no more
Notably, the team used off-the-shelf electronic components to make their multi-sensor heart rate measurement device. Another crucial benefit is that it can transmit all the data in real-time via Bluetooth, allowing remote monitoring for health experts.
Moreover, it supports wireless charging. The penta-radial heart rate sensor is fitted with an onboard 50mAh rechargeable battery that offers up to 8 hours of heart activity measurement per charge.
It can be juiced up using commercially available chargers, and power transfer can happen through wireless charging coils even when the device is being used, or underwater. The team is now working on porting the sensing hardware to a breathable layer so that it can be worn with ease.
Pebble is back and I couldn’t be happier. The smartwatch brand that pre-dated the Apple Watch by a number of years has made a dramatic return under the name “Core Devices”, and it’s clear to me that these are, so far, the most important wearables of 2025.
But that’s not because the two devices on offer, the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2, are sitting at the peak of technological achievement. No, they’re built from old Pebble parts, with e-paper displays, an old fashioned square design, and the ancient PebbleOS. In comparison to most of the best smartwatches, they’re positively prehistoric. You may then assume they’re bad smartwatches to buy, as my colleague Andy Boxall believes — but nothing could be further from the truth. These renamed Core Device smartwatches are the retro throwbacks we all need right now.
The Pebble doesn’t try to replace your phone
Recently, I spent some time wearing a normal “dumb” watch, and it made something very clear to me — the “smart” part of smartwatches really isn’t all that smart.
Manufacturers have been adding a lot to smartwatches in recent years, and to some extent, it’s meant that we’ve collectively forgotten a key fact about smartwatches — that the “smart” part is not more important than the “watch” part.
If you’re anything like me, you spend the first week with your smartwatch using the absolute monkeys out of it. You install a bunch of apps you’ll never use, download Spotify playlists you’ll never listen to, and spend an hour digging through the Settings app, finetuning everything about your watch. Then you … stop using it for anything other than the time and notifications. It’s a cycle I’ve personally repeated time and time again, and it’s a big part of the reason I, and so many others, consistently find myself going back to fitness trackers rather than smartwatches.
Because, ultimately, a smartwatch isn’t a replacement for a smartphone. No matter how many apps you install on it, no matter how good you get with a teeny-weeny keyboard, no matter how often you answer calls with it, you’re always going to eventually reach for your phone.
A smartwatch isn’t a replacement. It’s a go-between. A complement. The ideal form of the smartwatch is a device that lets you keep tabs on what’s going on, without needing to dig out your phone. And that’s exactly what these new Pebble watches offer. While you’ll be able to reply to notifications with the new Core Devices watches, it’s never going to be the focus. Instead, it’s a way to judge if a notification is important enough to get your phone out or not.
In fact, in a lot of ways, the Pebble approach to smartwatches is now more relevant than ever, because a more retro approach to smart tech is becoming more fashionable.
The old is new again
The Pebble do-over is coming at a time when younger generations are exploring the tech of yesteryear. Despite essentially going defunct last decade, wired headphones are making a comeback. While some will point out that wired headphones have better clarity and quality than wireless headphones, it’s less that young people have all suddenly become audiophiles, and more that they’re doing what young people have always done — reject the status quo.
The new Pebble devices are perfectly placed to take advantage of this new trend. After all, what’s more mainstream than the Apple Watch-style of smartwatch? The Core Devices Pebbles exist as far to the antithesis of the Apple Watch Series 10 as it’s possible to be while still being a smartwatch. It embraces the tech of yesteryear, putting it perfectly in line with a growing fondness for the retro tech chic of the 2010s. PebbleOS has an inherently old-fashioned look about it, but it’s still connected enough to modern tech to be useful. It’s the perfect hybrid between the old and the new, and that gives it value.
Back in their day, Pebble devices fell behind other smartwatches pretty rapidly. But now, that retro style and approach is an advantage.
Reject smart, embrace the watch
Core Devices
I’m not here to make the case that these new rebooted Pebbles are going to set the smartwatch market on fire, because that’s extremely unlikely. Even with my rose-tinted love for the Pebble Steel, I can see the new Pebbles, no matter what they’re called, aren’t a real match for most modern smartwatches. Their designs are old school, their e-ink displays are leagues from the OLED displays on most smartwatches, and the complete lack of fitness tracking shuts them out from a sizeable portion of the market.
But no matter how much I know that to be true, I can’t stop myself from wanting one. Why? Because underneath all of that, these new PebbleOS devices are incredible, effortlessly cool. They reject everything that’s come to define the modern smartwatch. “Smart” has always come before “watch” in the current era of wearables, and it’s about time we looked at a device that’s not afraid to embrace being less smart, and more of a watch. The Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 hark back to the days when a smartwatch wasn’t trying so hard to be a mini-smartphone. Instead, they’re not afraid to be what they always should have been — watches, with a touch of smart magic.
