Motorola isn’t best known for its smartwatch lineup, but for the past few years, the company has launched a range of smartwatches running the Wear OS platform that look fairly familiar. These have featured round displays, utilized Google’s wearable platform, and offered a compelling alternative to the best smartwatches running on Android.
Today, the company unveiled a new smartwatch that differs from its past devices, yet bears a striking resemblance to another smartwatch. The new Moto Watch Fit is square, doesn’t run Android, and is designed to be a competitor to one smartwatch: the Apple Watch.
At an exclusive briefing in New York City, I had the opportunity to experience the Moto Watch Fit alongside the new Moto Razr 2025, Razr Plus 2025, and Razr Ultra 2025 smartphones. What’s new, what’s different, and should you buy the new Moto Watch Fit? Here’s our first impressions from a brief hands-on!
Replacing a round display with a square
The Moto Watch Fit features a square 1.9-inch OLED display that’s reminiscent of the Apple Watch Series 10. It’s virtually identical in size, but while the Apple Watch is only compatible with the iPhone, the Moto Watch Fit is designed for those who want a square smartwatch to use alongside the best Android phones. At 1,000 nits, the display should be bright enough for most environments, although if you plan to work out under the bright midday sun, you may run into some legibility issues.
Much like the rest of Motorola’s smartphones, the Moto Watch Fit features bands with Pantone-curated colors. The trekking green color band matches the same color as the Razr Ultra 2025. Additionally, there is a selection of other bands, as well as support for any third-party band with 22 mm connectors.
This means you can choose from thousands of third-party bands, and Motorola says this is designed to give you as much choice as possible to find the style that suits you. If you want to find a wallpaper that also matches your band, you can use Moto AI to create one with a simple text prompt, although we weren’t able to test this during our hands-on session.
RTOS, not Wear OS, but that’s a good thing
The most notable aspect of the Moto Watch Fit is that Motorola has opted for the RTOS platform instead of Wear OS. The OnePlus Watch 3 demonstrated that it is possible to run both RTOS and Wear OS simultaneously using a dual-architecture setup, but Motorola has opted solely for the former.
This means there is no Google Play Store, and it lacks a large selection of apps to choose from. As a result, this won’t replace your existing watch if you prefer to use companion apps in addition to the ones installed on your phone. However, despite the lack of Wear OS, Motorola has ensured that the Moto Watch Fit is compatible with all Android phones.
The biggest benefit of using the RTOS platform is the extended battery life: the Moto Watch Fit is rated for a remarkable 16 days of battery life on a single charge. The OnePlus Watch 3 offers approximately five days of battery life, thanks to its dual architecture. With Motorola aiming for a minimum of two weeks, it explains the decision to use the RTOS platform. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 10 only lasts two days on a single charge.
Built for fitness first, fashion second
The decision not to use Wear OS also meant that Motorola had to develop its own in-house fitness tracking app. The companion app can track the usual suite of health features that you’d expect from a smartwatch, including health, sleep, and activity.
There’s also support for tracking over 100 different sports modes, as well as advanced calorie tracking and built-in GPS to ensure you have an accurate log of your distance and performance. Not everyone likes to run; however, if swimming is your preferred choice, 5ATM water resistance and an IP68 ingress protection rating ensure that you can submerge the watch up to 5 metres (165 feet).
The Moto Watch Fit is also protected by Gorilla Glass 3, which provides some protection against scratches and drops, both common issues that smartwatches are prone to. As I discovered with the Apple Watch Series 10, this protection is necessary, as I managed to deeply scratch my watch within a week of using it.
A focus on the core smartwatch essentials
The definition of a smartwatch has evolved significantly over the past decade, since the launch of the first Apple Watch. Apple made the concept of a wearable ubiquitous and completely redefined what customers have come to expect from a smartwatch. A decade later, the Apple Watch remains one of the few to utilize a square display, which addresses many of the inherent issues with viewing notifications and texts on a rounded display.
Like its phones, Motorola has clearly learned from the competition and its own users. The Moto Watch Fit addresses many of the challenges associated with the best smartwatches, thanks to its multi-week battery life, while also bringing much of the focus back to the core essentials of a smartwatch.
Unlike the Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch 7, or any other smartwatch running Wear OS, the Moto Watch Fit focuses on great health tracking, a stylish display, and excellent battery life. For some people, this may not be enough, especially since we don’t know the exact cost when it launches in the coming months. However, for others, it’ll be the perfect balance of features that they need, with fewer of the things they don’t.
Ultimately, if you’ve been looking for a stylish smartwatch that offers a strong suite of health tracking features and excellent battery life, this is probably the best smartwatch for you.
