It looks like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch Active 4, which will run on a radically new version of Google's Wear OS combined with Tizen are getting closer to launch.
That's according to the folks at Sammobile who've spotted that a batch of Samsung smartwatches have received certification at the CCC in China. When things start getting certified that's usually a good indication that we are not too far away from seeing them announced and launched.
There's four models listed in total, with the SM-R860 and SM-R870 models said to be tied to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 4. The SM-R880 and SM-R890 numbers are said to be the ones related to the two versions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.
Aside from those model numbers and confirmation that these products are indeed Samsung smartwatches, there's not much else to glean from the certifications. They will seemingly be sold without power adaptors, but that doesn't tell us a huge deal about what these watches will be packing.
We do of course now that they will run on a unified operating system that combines a new version of Google's Wear OS and Samsung's own Tizen. What will be taken from each of those platforms hasn't been revealed yet, but it seems that Wear will provide the foundations for this new OS. It's likely that with Fitbit now part of Google, its fitness tracking features will have a strong presence on this platform too.
It's a move that's also likely to give a boost to the lacklustre third party support that has plagued Samsung's Tizen platform since it was first introduced on a smartwatch.
There have been some features and design changes that have been rumored for Samsung's next smartwatches. That includes launching with a 42mm and 46mm case sizes. There had been early suggestions that Samsung would bring some form of blood glucose monitoring, having already added an ECG heart rate sensor and blood pressure monitoring to its current watches. Though it seems those rumors have quietened more recently.
A separate certification discovered suggests that the Galaxy Watch 4 will feature a 247mAh capacity battery and will support 5W charging.
In terms of when we can expect the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch Active 4 to be announced, both are tipped to be unveiled around August this year. Samsung's Galaxy Watch does usually get announced around this time, so that seems like the most likely launch window. While the first Galaxy Watch Active first showed up in February 2019, its successor launched in August too.
So it looks like we might only have to wait a couple of months to see what Samsung has in store for us.
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.