A Nothing Smartwatch May Be On The Way
Nothing, the tech startup founded by former OnePlus CEO Carl Pei, has been taking things slow with its product development and launch strategy. The company started its journey in 2021 with the Nothing Ear (1) wireless earbuds and followed it up with its first smartphone — the Nothing Phone (1) — a year later, in 2022. This year, in 2023, we saw the company come up with the Nothing Ear (2), a direct successor to the Nothing Ear (1). A few weeks from now, the company is set to launch the Nothing Phone (2), its smartphone offering for 2023. By now, it's evident that Nothing has concentrated on two product segments — wireless earbuds and smartphones. This is likely to change soon, with indications about Nothing likely extending its foothold into the highly competitive smartwatches space.
Documents unearthed by noted Indian leaker Mukul Sharma indicate that Nothing has begun development on its first smartwatch. The document first came into the limelight a month ago when it appeared in a trademark filing. This filing referred to the product simply as "CMF BY Nothing". Given that CMF stands for Color, Materials, and Finish, the filing didn't evoke much interest because it could be any product from the company. The device even had a model number (D395), about which very little was known back then. However, more recent documents unearthed by Mukul show that the model D395 is now classified as a smartwatch.
While the #NothingPhone2 is right around the corner, if you remember, I spotted this trademark, dubbed CMF By Nothing a couple of months ago.
Well, turns out it's a smartwatch.
Have also spotted the Nothing D395 in the smartwatches category on the Indian BIS certification 😀... pic.twitter.com/0npHX0Zy0r— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) June 20, 2023
Given that Nothing doesn't have a smartwatch in its portfolio yet, this could be the first-ever indication of the company finally entering this segment.
Will a Nothing smartwatch ever happen?
Because Nothing has only begun the process of filing trademarks for its future smartwatch lineup, we may still be a couple of years away from a potential launch. Nevertheless, the fact that it has bothered to file for a trademark anyway is a good enough indication that the company is interested in the space.
Now that we know that Nothing could, indeed, launch its smartwatch, Carl Pei's smartwatch-focused tweet in which he talked about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro makes even more sense. In the tweet from February 2023 (below), Pei said he feels smartwatches are "kind of useless" and even asks his audience what they use their smartwatches for. Could this have been the first-ever subtle hint indicating Nothing's grand smartwatch ambitions?
Got the Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro on Sunday to learn about smart watches, but I don't know what to use it for... Feels kind of useless? What do you use smart watches for?
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) February 22, 2023
If Nothing's plans to come up with its smartwatch come to fruition, it would be interesting whether the company would adopt the same unconventional design language for this device just as it did with the rest of its product lineup. That being said, it is still too early to say whether this mythical smartwatch would be a full-fledged Wear OS-powered "proper" smartwatch or just an affordable fitness tracker. However, we're leaning more toward a full-fledged smartwatch based on Nothing's track record.