The Wear OS 5 fixed update for Google Pixel Watch may not be available anytime soon

After initially debuting on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 series in mid-July, Google began rolling out Wear OS 5 for the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 in late September. But reports from Pixel users started pouring in just days after the firmware was released the soft-bricking of your watch through the update. To prevent further damage, the company pulled the update and paused its rollout. If you were hoping that Google would quickly fix the soft-bricking issue and release an updated Wear OS 5 build for the Pixel Watch, unfortunately that wouldn’t be the case.

In a post on Google’s support forums, a Google community manager confirmed that the release of Wear OS 5 for the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 was paused on September 26, 2024, after reports of black screens. The company now plans to “resume the rollout of WearOS 5 on these devices later this year” after the issue is resolved.

Google did not provide a detailed explanation for what was presumably a long delay in fixing the problem and resuming the release of Wear OS 5 for its first two Pixel watches. It is also unclear whether the company will release new monthly security updates for the Pixel Watch by then.

If your Pixel Watch suffered a softbrick while trying to install the Wear OS 5 update, Google recommends resetting it to factory settings to get it back to a working state.

Google may re-release Wear OS 5 for the Pixel Watch and Watch 2 along with Android 15 for Pixel phones. According to reports, the latter could release on October 15th, so Google may also release the corrected Wear OS 5 build on the same day.

Wear OS 5 refines the Pixel Watch experience

I manually pulled and installed the Wear OS 5 update onto my Pixel Watch 2 on the day of the rollout, and luckily the installation went smoothly. The new build has improved overall system performance and introduced smoother animations, further refining the experience of using the Pixel Watch.

Most of the other changes are minor and not immediately noticeable. The only exception is the new grid view for the app drawer, which significantly speeds up scrolling through all installed apps on the Pixel Watch.