Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Motorola is no stranger to launching smartwatches. It’s launched one or two each of the last few years, sometimes under its own umbrella and sometimes licensed through CE Brands (now Vitalist Inc.). And yet, you might not have realized it’s done anything in the wearable space since it tried to reboot the Moto 360 several years ago. That’s how forgettable the Moto Watch experience has been. Somehow, though, I’ve always held out hope that something good was on its way.
Until now. With yet another Motorola wearable on the horizon, I’ve decided it’s finally time to give up. I don’t think the Moto Watch will ever figure out its true identity, and I think it’s time we all moved on. Here’s why.
Clean hardware is great, but is it memorable?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
First, I have to give Motorola at least a little bit of credit. I don’t think the new Moto Watch looks bad. In fact, it looks an awful lot like an analog watch. It uses a rotating crown and button as controls, much like some of my favorite Coros running watches do. With a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display and an IP68 rating against water and dust, it certainly seems like Motorola has figured out how to design a good-looking wearable.
The thing is, though, I don’t feel like the Moto Watch is much more than a pretty face. It’s clean, but unremarkable. Put up against a pebble-like Pixel Watch, a geometrically interesting Galaxy Watch, and the beautifully simple Pebble Round 2, the Moto Watch is just kind of there. Honestly, bringing back the Moto 360’s flat tire design would have made it more interesting, even though such a design feature is no longer necessary in 2026.
Rather than make one great design, Motorola has now tried like seven copycat styles.
Perhaps my bigger problem with the Moto Watch — or at least its overarching product line — is that there’s no continuity. Motorola’s previous wearable, the Moto Watch Fit, was a square, single-buttoned clone of the Apple Watch, and the trio of licensed watches that preceded it may as well have been from different companies.
Despite being priced within $60 of each other, the Moto Watch 40 reminded me of a cheap fitness tracker, the Moto Watch 70 looked like a rough sketch of an Apple Watch, and the Moto Watch 120 resembled a riff on Samsung’s older, circular Galaxy Watch design. There wasn’t much to link them outside of names and shared software, and the lack of direction left me wondering what was next — until the Moto Watch Fit arrived, of course.
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