Smartwatches may only be coming into the mainstream this year, but companies have been working on ideas for the market since 2012, thinking about how a watch or wearable product would benefit the user.
Reporters at Android Police have found what appears to be Google and Motorola’s co venture into the smartwatch world, codenamed Gem, the Google smartwatch.
We heard about Gem very briefly in 2013, it was considered the first big project by the company, to integrate Motorola. It looks like Motorola did not make it out of the prototype stages and has since started work on their own smartwatch.
The design of the Google smartwatch is nothing really special, it looks like a big slap of plastic, with a non-removable band and quite large screen, too large for some who like small watch faces.
Motorola’s prototype even had some developer software running, allowing 3 Bit Mode Apps and Date & Time. We are not sure how far Google and Motorola got into the software on the prototype, our guess is it is running on Android.
Whatever the case, showing the Google smartwatch prototype at least shows the two parties were engaged in some sort of device, whether this was ever meant to be for consumers is another question entirely.
However, both Google and Motorola have moved on from Gem, Google has dropped Motorola for LG in the smartwatch and they will be building the first Nexus smartwatch sometime this year, possibly launching at Google I/O.
Motorola, on the other hand, will still develop a Google Now smartwatch sometime this year, alongside their own smartwatch or fitness band, according to rumors. In a Q&A on Twitter, Motorola did say they are working on a smartwatch for this year, focusing on battery life and style.
