Qualcomm was way too slow in bringing advanced chips for smartwatches, and that is when Apple took a huge leap forward. Samsung didn't depend on Qualcomm and developed in-house Exynos chips for Galaxy Watches. While Google switched from Exynos to Snapdragon chips for second and third-generation Pixel Watches, it could switch to in-house chips in the future, similar to Samsung.
Pixel Watch 5 could use custom chips from Google
It has been revealed that Google could switch to its in-house Tensor chips for its future Pixel Watches, starting with the Pixel Watch 5 in 2026. Android Authority seems to have glanced at documents from Google's gChips division that describes Tensor chips for wearables. The first chip is codenamed NPT (could be the short form for ‘Newport Beach'), which fits in with the codename of Tensor G5 (Laguna Beach).
This chip, similar to Samsung's Exynos W1000 processor, features one Cortex-A78 CPU core. However, it only uses two Cortex-A55 CPU cores as opposed to the Exynos W1000's four Cortex-A55 CPU cores. These might not be ARM's latest CPU cores, but wearables need power efficiency more than performance, so even a tri-core CPU with one high-performance core would be enough.
Google's in-house Tensor chip for Pixel Watches could use TSMC's 3nm fabrication process node. Even the Tensor G6 chip is expected to use the same process node. Moreover, the document also reveals Google's plans to switch from ARM architecture to the open-source RISC-V architecture.
Since Google doesn't have in-house modems, it would be interesting to see which one it uses. The company has depended on Samsung's Exynos cellular modems in the past for Tensor chips, so it is likely that it will do the same, but it is far too early to say that with confidence.
