Google brings Wear OS 6 to older Pixel smartwatches

Wear OS 6 gives you plenty of reasons to hold on to your old Pixel Watches for longer.

By Shikhar Mehrotra Published October 8, 2025

Someone wearing the Google Pixel Watch 3, showing the app drawer. — Joe Maring / Digital Trends

What’s happened? If you own an older Google Pixel Watch, such as the Watch 2 or the Watch 3, and you didn’t splurge your money on the latest one, there’s good news for you.

Google has finally started rolling out Wear OS 6 (built on Android 16), first previewed on the Pixel Watch 4, to older Pixel Watches.
For now, the list of compatible devices includes the Pixel Watch 2 (2023) and the Pixel Watch 3 (2024), including the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi and LTE models.

Why is this important? Google is pushing a Wear OS 6 OTA update to all eligible devices, starting from October 8. The complete rollout will take a few weeks, depending on the region, carrier, and the device.

The update includes Google’s new Material 3 Expressive dynamic color theming, which revamps the entire look and feel of the Pixel Watch UI.
You get a smoother user interface, refreshed icons and layouts for apps, smoother scrolling, and edge-hugging visual elements that make the entire experience more vibrant and intuitive.
Google also claims a 10% improvement in battery life, thanks to the efficiency optimizations made under the hood.

Why should I care? If you own an older Pixel Watch, the Wear OS 6 update will give it a fresh look and add new features. Further, your smartwatch will last longer between charges.

Wear OS 6 brings Pixel Watches closer to the design language seen on the latest Pixel smartphones running Android 16, unifying the experience across devices.
You can head to Settings > System > System Updates to download the update.

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OK, what’s next? The Pixel Watch 4, pre-installed with the Wear OS 6 update, will hit shelves on October 9, 2025.

The original Pixel Watch isn’t included (yet), but it should get the latest Wear OS 6 update by the end of this month.
As Google moves to a quarterly OS release for its smartwatches, expect more frequent additions.

Shikhar Mehrotra

News Writer

For more than five years, Shikhar has consistently simplified developments in the field of consumer tech and presented them…

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