LG Smartwatch Details Pre-Event: Round Gets Real

In the war for most round smartwatch on the market, Motorola had – until now – held the monopoly with the Moto 360. Or they would have, had they actually had the resources – or the foresight – to release the device before the rest of the world had the chance to release one first. LG is taking the open shot – so is Samsung – and now Motorola may be caught with their pants down.

What you're seeing here is LG's latest showing of its round smartwatch. This device doesn't have a name yet, but we'd not be surprised if it was called something along the lines of LG 360. Or LG G60 – say it out loud. Or LG R Watch (R stands for Round, of course).

The video above should bring you up to speed with the "R" idea. This watch will feature watch faces from Android Wear, right along the lines of what we've seen with the Moto 360. The software will be almost identical.

So what's the difference?

LG, Samsung, and Motorola all have round smart watches coming out soon. Motorola's has a little block of space at the bottom of its display "where Motorola's display driver components hide." The LG R Watch has a circular face and will be revealed at IFA 2014 on the 5th of September. Samsung's device is slightly more of a mystery.

The long and short of this is that Samsung and LG are able to manufacture and distribute products much more readily than Motorola. They had square watches ready in a snap for Android Wear, and they've both ramped up circular displays for this Autumn. Motorola had better have an extremely snappy price point to compete.