The Pixel Watch may be branded Google but its BOM says “Samsung”

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As the Pixel ecosystem continued to expand, the Google Pixel Watch was released on October 13 and is priced at $349.99 for the Bluetooth model and $399.99 for the LTE variant of the watch. According to Counterpoint Research, the bill of materials (BoM) cost of the LTE-capable Pixel Watch is estimated at $123. Counterpoint points out that Google uses a high-performance processor that can handle the latest version of Wear OS. The chip used to power the Pixel Watch is an Exynos 9110 which was built by Samsung Foundry using the latter’s 10nm process node. The component is equipped with a dual-core CPU consisting of ARM’s Cortex-A53 CPU running at a clock speed of 1.1 GHz, a Mali-T720 GPU and an LTE Cat.4 modem. The co-processor consists of NXP MIMXRT595S using ARM’s Cortex-M33 based MCU (microcontroller) with a digital signal processor and GPU core.

The category of Pixel Watch parts that costs the most belongs to Processing + Memory

The cost of the two processors and the 32GB + 2GB Kingstone ePoP integrated memory chip accounts for nearly 27% of the BoM, or $33.21 for each Pixel Watch. The display protected by Gorilla Glass 5 accounts for 17.2% of the BoM or $21.16. The 1.2-inch Always-on OLED display made by BOE has a resolution of 450 x 450 and can produce a bright 1000-nit image that allows users to see their watch even during sunny days.

Breaking down the BOM for the LTE Pixel Watch

For the cellular model, the Pixel Watch uses an LTE Cat 4 configuration. The report states that this is composed of Samsung’s S915 transceiver, Skyworks’ SKY53737 diversity receiver, and SKY77643 multi-mode and multi-band power amplifier module, antenna switch Qorvos and more muRata duplexers. Also in this category, you’ll find Broadcom’s Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo, the BCM430132, the company’s standalone GPS chip (BCM47765), and STMicroelectronics’ NFC chip that supports eSIM and Google Pay.

Cellphone-related parts make up 5% of materials and cost $6.15 per watch; the other connectivity-related parts cost Google about $7.01 for each unit, or 5.7% of the total BOM cost.

As you might expect, there are quite a few sensors on the Pixel Watch. Some handle device operations, including an ambient light sensor and light encoder for the Digital Crown. Other sensors track health data, including some from Texas Instruments used to monitor a user’s heart rate and to conduct an electrocardiogram (ECG). The sensors combine to make up 8.3% of the BoM or $10.21 per watch.

Other Pixel Watch parts include:

Case + Waterproof + Heat Treatment-14.7% or $18.08 per watch.

PCB (Printed Circuit Board) + Passives + Others-7.2% or $8.86 per clock.

Battery + Charging-6.1% or $7.50 per watch.

Watch Bands – 3.3% or $4.06 per watch.

Counterpoint says the biggest winners in the Pixel Watch supply chain are Samsung (which supplies the core chipset, LTE transceiver and other parts) which is responsible for supplying 20%, or $24.60 in parts for each Pixel Watch. BOE, which supplies the device’s display, is next as it collects about 14% of the BoM cost ($17.22 for each unit).

Samsung’s parts make up 20% of the BoM cost of each Pixel Watch

Please note that the BoM does not include the cost for Google to assemble the product, package the Pixel Watch, market the device and distribute it. So you can’t conclude from this data that Google is making a huge profit on every LTE variant of the Pixel Watch sold.

Counterpoint says that compared to the class-leading Apple Watch, there’s a lot of room for improvement. The research firm says that through Google’s partnership with Samsung, “Google is likely to equip its next-generation Pixel Watch with a more powerful, integrated, intelligent and secure computing platform.”

The Pixel ecosystem will grow later this year with the expected release of the Pixel Tablet. And a foldable device will likely still launch later this year adding a new form factor to the Pixel lineup. We could see the mid-range Pixel 7a showcased at Google I/O 2023 (most likely held in May) and released later this year. And of course, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Plus will most likely be introduced and released during Q4.

When will we see Pixel Watch 2? Right now our best guess is that a quick preview of the clock could be shown at Google I/O. The Pixel Watch 2 could be officially announced and released next October.

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