A new leak suggests that Samsung is working on a new smartwatch that will run on Google’s Wear OS. In the meantime, we’re trying to figure out if the new Samsung Galaxy Watch will ditch Tizen altogether or if we will have two variants running on different OS.

It seems that Samsung may be getting ready to give up on Tizen OS, as new information confirms that the chaebol is working on a new smartwatch with WearOS. The first time we saw evidence of this was when well-known leaker IceUniverse suggested that Samsung’s new watch would use Android instead of Tizen. We know that Samsung is working on at least two new devices, as the codenames, Wise and Fresh surfaced last week. This led many to believe that Samsung is planning something big with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch.

https://twitter.com/UniverseIce/status/1362697174694301700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Reports mention a new smartwatch with model numbers SM-R86x and SM-R87x, which would correspond to two different sizes of a new Samsung Galaxy Watch. However, this report also claims that Fresh may be the model to come equipped with WearOS, while the latest info found by XDA Recognized Developer’s ivan_meler suggests a third model codenamed Merlot. This device was mentioned along with WearOS in the kernel source code for the Samsung Galaxy S20 (SM-G980F). Merlot would also arrive with the Broadcom BVM43013 chip, like the Galaxy Watch 3.

Merlot WearOS mention in Kernel Source code for Samsung Galaxy S20

Things get a bit unclear when we remember that Merlot was found in the kernel source code for the Samsung Galaxy S20, which is a bit dated. In other words, Merlot as a codename is rather old, so we can’t believe that it’s a new and upcoming device, as there’s no mention of it in the kernel source codes for One UI 3.1. This would make us think that the project was put on hold, or maybe it changed its name to Wise or Fresh. Whatever the case, we must remember that the latest Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 was launched back in August, and rumors also suggest that this new WearOS smartwatch could also be released before the end of the year.

Source SamMobile