Google Smartwatch Release Date: Inside Google’s New Invention About to Hit Stores

The Google I/O rumor mill is in high gear this morning as we anxiously await the three day conference in to kick off at Google's Mountain View, California HQs. High points? Android 4.3 is all but confirmed. Low points? Key Lime Pie OS is definitely not being launched today. One of the other more exciting rumors circulating concerns the much ballyhooed Google smartwatch.

I wasn't the first to raise this question and I certainly won't be the last, but why the heck would Google develop and release a smartwatch when it has spent the last several years developing GoogleGlass? It could be because everyone else is doing it. Apple and Samsung have been working on their own versions of the smartwatch and we've seen the smartwatch have great success at the CES via Pebble. 

AndroidAuthority confirmed that a Google smartwatch has been shown in three major Google offices including Berlin, Manchester and Mountain View. It's unclear if the smartwatch will be released at the I/O conference or at some later time, but sources have that the watch will have to be tethered to your smartphone. The source who gave information to AndroidAuthority went onto say, “Functionality will be very much like Glass”. 

What does that even mean? The interface will work similarly to Google Now and relies on a type of card for functionality. If that sounds incredibly vague, that's because it is. There is no word on who made the smartwatch or when it will be released. All that we really know is that it exists in a physical form. 

The Google I/O Day 1 conference kicks off at 9am PT and 12 ET, you may watch it live here.