The last Sony Smartwatch came out in 2014, and at this point the brand's wearables belong in museums rather than on wrists – but, after seven years, we could see a new smartwatch from the Japanese tech company.
Popular leaker ZACKBUKS posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo to claim that Wena, a sub-brand of Sony, became part of the company's mobile division in April 2021, and that as a result 'there may be a future Xperia x Wena linkage' – in other words, there might be a future collaboration between Wena and the Xperia brand.
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Wena is Sony's wearable arm, and it doesn't make smartwatches, but smart straps for standard watches. If it's been merged with the company's mobile division – Sony hasn't confirmed or commented on this report – it suggests that we could see future smartwatches from the company, particularly under the Xperia name (we haven't seen an Xperia-branded watch before).
Commenters are speculating that this would be a Wear OS smartwatch – the Sony Smartwatch 3 from 2014 used Android Wear, which was the predecessor of Wear OS – but there's nothing solid behind this rumor.
Time to get excited?
If you're a Sony fan, you might be getting your hopes up at these reports that the company is set to get back in the wearable game, since its past efforts were well received. But you should probably hold your horses.
First, while ZACKBUKS has a good reputation, no leaker has a perfect track record, and the vague language used in the Weibo post suggests the news isn't a sure thing.
Second, even if we knew for certain that Sony was working on a SmartWatch 4, or a Sony Xperia Watch, new gadgets don't appear overnight – the company would need to spend a long time developing it. There are seven years worth of smartwatch innovations the company needs to catch up with, so it could be a long time until we see a device.
And even if this report is the real deal, and Sony announced its new smartwatch tomorrow, there's no guarantee that the wearable would be any good.
Sony's efforts, in general and especially in the last few years, have been focused on the entertainment side of things. Its Xperia phones have had loads of processing power for gaming, great-looking displays for watching movies and other content, and fantastic speakers, but the devices have been less impressive in other areas, like cameras and battery life.
So if smartwatches were intended for entertainment, Sony designing one would make perfect sense, but they're not – most wearables focus on health and fitness, an area Sony has no real track record in.
With so little to go on right now there's not much point in speculating any further –but we'll keep a eye out for future Sony Xperia Watch rumors, and bring them to you.
Via NoteBookCheck
