Google’s smartwatch does exist and isn’t too far away

All this time our attention has been focused on a possible iWatch coming out of Cupertino, but it appears Google also has every intention of releasing a smartwatch of its own. This isn’t a new rumor per se, but with wearables primed to really take off in 2014, the news is significant. Samsung, Pebble and a few others are already making their claim to the smartwatch throne. But the prospect of a Google wearable, one possibly tied directly into Google Now, is pretty appealing.

Google’s long-rumored smartwatch is real, and still “officially” expected to begin shipping in mid to late March. However, many members of the smartwatch team inside Google believe that date will either be pushed back to June, or the watch will end up shipping incomplete with a smaller feature set than originally intended. As it stands now, the timeline for the watch’s release is far from being set in stone. The smartwatch prototypes are currently on lockdown in a Google building, under high security, and they’re not able to be taken out for fear that news will leak. (Oops.) According to people familiar with the matter, an early prototype of the watch had a Pebble Steel-like metal band, square face, and a colorful digital display featuring a gradient background where colors gently fade from one to the next. It also seemed to have a more masculine vibe, also like the Pebble Steel.