This year has been an interesting one for LG in terms of the timing of releases of devices. This got started out with a delay of their spring flagship device which was ultimately branded as the LG G7 ThinQ while LG execs tried to sort out whether they really wanted to stay in the race with Samsung and Apple. The company is back with a regular fall release now for their V series of phones, which many think may be the true LG flagship anyway. Next week the company is scheduled to launch the LG V40 ThinQ. Rumors point to LG also announcing the LG Watch Timepiece as a hybrid wearable, several months after it was first discovered in the pipeline.
The LG Watch Timepiece first surfaced back in April when it was referred to as the LG Watch W7. The device then disappeared. However, Evan Blass claims LG rebranded the product and will launch it next week. In a unique twist, LG appears to have combined features of a Wear OS powered digital smartwatch with an analog, mechanical device.
One thing that appears to have not changed in the intervening months is the use of the now outdated Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. That will be matched with 4GB of onboard storage and 768MB of RAM. Powering the Wear OS digital portion of the watch will be a 240 mAh battery. According to sources, once that battery is depleted, the watch can continue to operate for about 100 hours or 4 days by shutting down the digital system and just using the analog timepiece components.
Half a year later, this will launch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ as the LG Watch W7. https://t.co/vEXJ6BOvvG
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 28, 2018
From a design standpoint, sources say the physical watch hands will sit atop the digital display and can be manipulated to provide information instead of serving as a distraction for users attempting to use the 1.2-inch LCD screen. The watch is expected to measure 45.5 x 45.4 x 12.9 mm and will use 22mm bands. A special edition that gets a metal strap to go with the usual silicone band is also expected.
In addition to the basic working hardware, sources are still unclear as to whether the device will have NFC and GPS support, although that is not expected. Likewise, the LG smartwatch will not have wireless network capabilities, but will support WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The device also gets IP68 certification, so it should be ok to use in most weather conditions without worry.
source: Evan Blass (Twitter)
