Qualcomm working on new wearable chip to give Wear watches a big boost

Qualcomm could be ready to give Wear smartwatches a much needed shot in the arm, with a new chip apparently already in testing.

That's according to WinFuture, who believe that the chipset maker is currently working on a platform with the names WTP2700 and WTP429W. The WTP in the names stands for wearable testing platform. That could mean the new platform may carry the name, Wear 2700 or Wear 429.

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It's believed the new platform will be a stripped back version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 429 mobile platform, which can commonly be found powering mid-range Android tablets and smartphones.

As far as features are concerned, it looks like power saving will be the priority once again, letting Wear watch owners use their smartwatches for longer. The rumored 64-bit computing support should also unlock the door for a vastly improved experience overall. However, it sounds as though we won't see what Qualcomm has been working on until 2020.

Qualcomm announced its Wear 3100 Wear platform back in September last year, promising power efficient features to improve battery performance for smartwatches packing the chip.

Since its unveiling, we've only seen a handful of watches packing the 3100 chip, which include the Fossil Sport, Montblanc Summit 2 and Louis Vuitton's next generation Tambour Horizon. Most watches still run on Qualcomm's older 2100 platform.

The difference between that 2100 and 3100 platforms wasn't huge, so if the rumors about the 429 prove to be true, it may will be a major jump up from the 3100 in terms of what Wear watches are capable of.

But if we have to wait until 2020 to see it, it might be too late for Google, as it continues to play catch-up with Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin and more.