The teams at Samsung, Apple, and Pebble have some serious competition that is already hard at work on a smartwatch. Who could that be? Google of course. We’ve heard reports of a Nexus smartwatch in the past, but this week details from Gigaom confirm that Google acquired WIMM Labs, who if you remember, released the Android-powered WIMM One smartwatch back in 2011. Yes, Google is hard at work, and have been for some time, on a smartwatch.
We got our first look at WIMM Labs and their smartwatch platform back in 2011, and it eventually launched in November for roughly $299 so developers could start developing apps for such a wearable Android device. We gave tons of WIMM One platforms away to our readers. The entire project had tons of promise, but quickly after the entire WIMM team went silent.
According to Gigaom the entire company went silent because of an exclusive, confidential relationship with Google. That’s pretty exciting stuff. This also means Google’s been working hard with the WIMM team for over 14 months since the silent acquisition, so technically they could have something impressive coming up extremely soon. Rumors thought Apple snatched them up, turns out it was good old Google.
More details and a hands-on video of the original raw WIMM Platform from 2011 can be found in our timeline below. Forward to today, in June rumors surfaced that Google was building a smartwatch, among other things, and that we could potentially see it get released this fall. Could Google be preparing to launch a new Nexus smartphone and watch all running Android Key Lime Pie later this year? It’s plausible, and this latest WIMM report gives it even more support.
So where does WIMM and Google go from here? We’re not really sure, but we have a feeling the world will find out soon enough. To add fuel to this fire, the entire WIMM platform was more than just a watch. They had belt clips, accessories, and tons of other ideas for wearable computing. With smartwatches, Google Glass, and tons of possibilities we haven’t even talked about, Google has a great position moving forward.
