The state of Wear OS is still not clear. Google promised an overhaul with Wear OS 3 and we’re expecting a new Google Pixel Watch that runs Wear OS 3. The only Wear OS 3 wearables on the market for a while were last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 models and these were the first time Samsung’s Watches were no longer compatible on iOS. This led us to believe that Wear OS 3 smartwatches would no longer cater to iPhone users.
This is not the case, however, with new information from Wareable. The recently announced Montblanc Summit 3 has been confirmed to be compatible with iOS as per a Qualcomm spokesperson. We would proceed with several grains of salt (for now) as the news is not coming from an official Montblanc source. The Summit 3 is powered by the Snapdragon Wear 4100+.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
Wear OS has historically been compatible with iPhones, though with some features limited due to incompatibility. When Samsung introduced the Watch 4 with the newly unified Wear OS, it would not be compatible with iOS devices, and we were led to believe the reason was Wear OS 3 due to Samsung’s Tizen-powered watches also having historically had support for iOS.
Smartwatch brands like Montblanc and Fossil have customers with iPhones and they want to cater to this audience in addition to supporting Android smartphones. Samsung could have added support for iOS but instead chose not to. Whether the Pixel Watch will support iOS is not yet known, but it seems like it will be up to every Wear OS smartwatch maker to decide whether their wearables will be compatible with iPhones.
