We’ve been following the Race 3 family for months, first through regulatory filings, leaked info on Suunto’s website and then retailer listings. Now there is even more detailed info available, so thanks to RF for the tip. Some of the same material has since appeared on Reddit, including images said to show the Race 3S.

There is one important caveat. We have not been able to independently confirm that the material is genuine. We also tried several AI image-detection tools, which returned conflicting results and didn’t help us verify it either way. For now, this is best treated as an unverified leak rather than confirmed product information.

The Race 3S stays small

Suunto appears to be sticking closely to the dimensions of the current Race S. The new material lists the Race 3S at 45mm in diameter, 11.4mm thick and 53 grams, exactly the same weight and thickness shown for the titanium Race S.

That’s important because several of the upgrades are fairly substantial. The AMOLED display remains 1.32 inches with a 466 x 466 resolution, but maximum brightness jumps from 600 nits to 2,000 nits. Gorilla Glass also makes way for sapphire crystal.

Storage doubles from 32GB to 64GB, while 5 ATM water resistance and offline mapping remain part of the package. The material also mentions a titanium bezel.

There is one slightly messy detail in the presentation. Some feature slides call it a 46mm case, while the direct Race S versus Race 3S comparison lists both watches at 45mm. So that is not clear.

Battery life looks like the biggest upgrade

As far as battery life goes, the material lists up to 45 hours of dual-band GPS in Performance mode. This is up from 30 hours on the current Race S. The product material specifically mentions silicon-carbon anode battery technology, something we haven’t seen Suunto highlight on its existing sports watches.

Silicon-carbon batteries can provide higher energy density than conventional graphite-based lithium-ion designs, which potentially allows more capacity to fit into the same amount of space. That would help explain how Suunto could increase GPS endurance without making the watch thicker or heavier.

Another render shows 45 hours in Performance mode and 55 hours in Endurance mode. An Ultra mode is visible as well, although its full runtime is obscured, so there isn’t enough information yet to put a reliable figure on it.

Suunto is positioning it firmly as a trail watch

The leaked material describes the Race 3S as a premium trail-running watch that combines a compact and lightweight design with rugged durability. That’s a little more specific than the broader positioning of some previous Race models.

Navigation remains a major part of the pitch. Dual-band GNSS and free global topographic maps are highlighted, alongside what Suunto calls responsive navigation.

The training side includes Trail Race Planner with climb guidance, Training Zone, Energy Sense, AI Coach support and SuuntoPlus integrations with more than 120 sport partners. Some of those features may eventually reach other Suunto watches as well, so we wouldn’t assume they are all Race 3S exclusives.

October 15 is the target

The other big new detail is timing. The material lists October 15, 2026 as the target launch date and $499 as the US recommended retail price. “Target launch” means this date is not set in stone.

The new material also shows the same three colourways we had already seen elsewhere. Titanium Orchid appears to be the lead option, joined by Titanium Feather and Titanium Black.

The larger Race 3 is also coming at some stage. But for now, the picture around the smaller model is becoming pretty clear.

The post Suunto Race 3S leak points to mid-October launch and major battery upgrade appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

We compared the new release with version 7.36.2, and both device names are new. More importantly, they sit inside Polar’s device-recognition code rather than a stray promotional file.

A new version of the screenless tracker

The one that is more interesting is Polar Loop Gen 3. The name appears in a new device profile tied to the hardware identifiers INW6R and Polar_INW6R, while Polar’s wider device registry has also gained a matching “loop gen 3” entry.

There is a slightly odd detail in the same profile. Its marketing-name field still says “Polar Loop Gen 2”, but the code used to recognise connected models explicitly accepts “Polar Loop Gen 3”. That could mean that Polar is still tidying up internal labels before anything becomes public.

Either way, this is more than a casual mention. Device-recognition logic exists so the app can identify hardware and apply the correct behaviour, which makes the reference harder to dismiss as unused copy left in a translation file.

The timing is what gives this some bite. Polar launched the current screen-free Loop in September 2025, positioning it as a subscription-free alternative to products such as Whoop. The current model is barely a year old, so a third-generation name appearing now points to a quicker hardware cycle than many buyers might expect.

Polar 360 Gen 2 gets a cleaner profile

Polar 360 Gen 2 is the second new name, and its implementation is less muddled. A new device profile recognises “Polar 360 Gen 2”, “360 Gen 2” and the lower-case equivalent, all connected with a new INW6S hardware identifier.

The original Polar 360 appeared in the Flow app before its wider business rollout, so this is a familiar route for the product family. Polar currently describes the Polar 360 as a screen-free platform for companies that want to build health and fitness services around Polar’s sensors, software tools and data.

The H12 is starting to reveal its purpose

The same app update also moves the H12 story forward. Our earlier Polar H12 discovery found a dedicated device profile in version 7.36.2, but there was no useful information about its connectivity, battery life or sensing hardware at the time.

Version 7.37.0 adds user-facing setup text linked to that H12 profile. It says the sensor can broadcast heart rate to as many as four Bluetooth devices simultaneously, while new open and secure modes let the wearer choose whether nearby devices can pick up the signal easily.

Secure mode is described as keeping heart-rate data from being picked up by anyone, while open mode is intended to make connections easier. That sounds aimed at people who move between watches, gym equipment, training apps and cycling computers.

What the app still does not tell us

There are no Loop Gen 3 or Polar 360 Gen 2 product images in the updated onboarding package. The onboarding file itself is unchanged from version 7.36.2, with the new models appearing only in the app’s underlying device definitions and registry.

It’s important to note here – app code can arrive months before a product, survive after plans change or cover hardware that never receives a normal retail launch. So this is evidence of development rather than confirmation of upcoming availability.

It is also worth noting that the INW6R model number has not yet appeared in any of the regulatory databases we monitor. That makes a 2026 launch look less likely, with early 2027 perhaps the more realistic window.

APK teardown note

This article is based on an APK teardown. Code found inside an app can reveal features or devices that are under development, but there is no guarantee they will appear in a future public release.

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We spotted the Galaxy Watch9 Classic in a Russian regulatory declaration last week. At first glance, the obvious explanation was that Samsung had planned the watch, changed its mind and left the name sitting in some old paperwork.

The timing makes that explanation less tidy. The document was not registered before Samsung unveiled its 2026 watches, it appeared afterwards.

The filing came after the Watch9 launch

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Watch9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra2 on July 22. There was no Galaxy Watch9 Classic, despite the Classic name having already appeared in the wider regulatory trail around Samsung’s smartwatch lineup.

Then, on August 14, a new Russian Declaration of Conformity was registered. The document explicitly lists Galaxy Watch9, Galaxy Watch9 Classic and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 together as smartwatches.

That puts the registration roughly three weeks after Samsung had already shown us its 2026 smartwatch lineup. The timing is what makes this more interesting than a forgotten pre-launch reference.

If the declaration had been registered months before Unpacked, it would be easy enough to dismiss the Watch9 Classic as a product Samsung considered and later cancelled. But someone was still filing paperwork containing that exact name after the Watch9 and Ultra2 were already official.

It could still be a cancelled watch

This does not definitely prove Samsung is preparing a Galaxy Watch9 Classic for release. Regulatory documents can include products that never make it to shops, so the filing alone is not enough to treat the watch as confirmed.

But there is the other possibility is that Samsung never intended the Watch9 Classic to arrive alongside the standard Watch9. A later release would explain why the name remained active in regulatory paperwork without appearing at the July event.

That is why the Galaxy Watch9 Classic remains a product to watch rather than something we can say is definitely coming. The filing gives us the name, but it does not give us a release date or tell us what Samsung intends to do with it.

Samsung’s current lineup does leave an obvious gap, though. The Galaxy Watch9 covers the mainstream end and Ultra2 sits above it, while anyone wanting Samsung’s physical rotating bezel still has to look at the previous-generation Classic.

The post Why did the Galaxy Watch9 Classic appear after Samsung’s launch appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is back with a fresh report, and this time the language is different. Apple isn’t just exploring an idea anymore, it has actual prototypes sitting somewhere in Cupertino. They’re described as a thin fabric band paired with a sensor equipped computing module.

From a maybe to an actual thing

The project is currently in what Bloomberg calls the technology investigation phase. In English, this means the stage where Apple works out whether the sensors, the battery and the software can actually come together into something worth shipping.

Which is why the timeline attached to this is so far out. Bloomberg says a launch, if it happens at all, wouldn’t come before 2028.

That lines up with something we said back in May when first floated the idea of an Apple Watch Air, a lightweight health tracker that sits alongside the main Apple Watch rather than replacing it. Apple clearly likes that framing, wear the Watch for maps, workouts and notifications, then switch to the band for sleep or for days you just don’t want a screen on your wrist.

The people behind it matter here

What’s new and genuinely worth paying attention to is who’s backing this internally. Gurman names Eddy Cue and Tim Cook as supporters of the project. Cue took over Apple’s health division last October after Jeff Williams left, and this might be a hint of the direction he wants to take it.

It also fits a pattern we have been tracking for a while. Garmin has already proven a screenless band can complement rather than replace a full watch with CIRQA, and Google did the same thing at a lower price point with Fitbit Air. Apple watching two competitors validate the category before committing real engineering resources isn’t surprising, it’s just how Apple tends to operate.

Don’t expect this soon

Just yesterday, we looked at how how Garmin, Oura, Whoop and Apple’s own readiness scores all share the same evidence gap. It’s a good reminder that even if Apple ships this thing in 2028, the software side of health wearables still has real questions to answer. That’s on top of everything else Apple has going on with its current Watch lineup rebooting issues.

For now this stays a prototype, and prototypes get killed inside Apple all the time. But the fact that Tim Cook is reportedly involved, that there’s a defined design direction, and that the timing lines up with everything else happening in this category, makes this feel less like a rumour and more like a project with real momentum behind it.

The post Turns out Apple really is building a Whoop rival appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

The document in question is an EAEU Declaration of Conformity registered in Russia. It covers a long list of Garmin smartwatches, including existing products as well as several devices that had not been announced.

Tactix 9 is right there in the model list

Among them are Garmin tactix 9, Garmin tactix 9 Ballistics Edition and Garmin Enduro 4. There is no decoding of cryptic hardware numbers required here, those are the actual product names written into the declaration.

That July 23 declaration first mentioned these. It was later replaced, but the names did not disappear. Enduro 4, tactix 9 and tactix 9 Ballistics Edition remain in the newer August 31 paperwork as well, which makes a stray typo or temporary entry less likely.

Enduro 4 had already surfaced before. Our Garmin Connect 5.27 teardown found a connection between that device, Garmin internal product ID 5179 and the codename GOBI.

The tactix 9 is the fresher find. Garmin is still on the tactix 8 generation, which launched in early 2025, and we have not previously found a mention anywhere of tactix 9.

Seeing a Ballistics Edition listed separately also fits Garmin’s existing tactix setup. It does not tell us what the next watch will look like or what hardware will change, but it does suggest Garmin is already using both names in formal compliance paperwork.

The fēnix 9 gives this filing some credibility

The most useful part of the document may actually be a watch that has already launched. The July 23 declaration listed the fēnix 9 family, including several AMOLED, Solar and Pro variants, more than a month before Garmin officially unveiled the range on August 25.

In hindsight, those were real future products sitting in the same model list. That does not mean tactix 9 or Enduro 4 is about to launch next week, but it makes the unreleased names harder to dismiss as generic placeholders.

There is also an important limitation here. This is not a device-specific FCC-style filing, so there are no photos, radio details, dimensions or useful Garmin hardware IDs attached to tactix 9 or Enduro 4.

It is better viewed as confirmation that Garmin has these product names in its compliance system. It is the first time we see these devices mentioned by name by a regulator. As for the timing and hardware, those are still question marks.

Source: RosAccreditation

The post Garmin tactix 9 and Enduro 4 named by Russian regulator appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

The device was first spotted in an FCC filing, where the paperwork pointed to a gadget with straps, a screen, GNSS and Bluetooth LE. The FCC never actually named Google, though. The new IMDA entry does, which makes the whole thing a lot less speculative.

IMDA actually names Google

The Singapore listing is pretty straightforward. G8BL6 appears under the Google brand, with “Wireless Device” as the equipment description and Bluetooth as the equipment type. Wideminds Pte. Ltd. is listed as the local supplier, while the marketing-name field is still blank.

That last bit means we still do not know what Google plans to call this thing. But having Google sitting there in the Brand/Trade Name column is a big step forward because the FCC filing itself only names Weifang Goertek Electronics as the applicant.

When we first looked through the FCC paperwork, there were already plenty of reasons to suspect Google. Goertek also handled the FCC filing for Fitbit Air, and G8BL6 follows the sort of model naming Google uses for its hardware.

The IMDA entry now removes that part of the detective work. Whatever G8BL6 eventually turns out to be, it is a Google device.

The FCC clues now make a lot more sense

That makes everything buried in the FCC reports a bit more important.

The paperwork mentions different straps being tested, while the RF exposure testing treats G8BL6 as an extremity device with zero separation. In other words, this looks very much like something intended to sit directly on the wrist.

There also appears to be a display. The device’s regulatory information can be opened from its Home screen by going through Settings > System > Regulatory Information, where the FCC ID appears electronically.

Then there is GNSS. The FCC testing lists both Bluetooth LE and GNSS, which points to onboard satellite positioning rather than a tracker that depends entirely on a connected phone for location.

The test setup also mentions a charging base. And Sporton used ADB, Google’s Android debugging toolkit, to put G8BL6 into engineering modes during testing. None of that proves it runs Wear OS, but it is another clue that fits much better now that IMDA has directly tied the hardware to Google.

So far, there is no Wi-Fi or cellular radio authorization attached to G8BL6. That makes another conventional Pixel Watch look less likely and pushes us back towards some kind of fitness tracker or lighter wrist wearable.

That mystery Google band is back in the conversation

There is an obvious device sitting in the background here.

Google has already shown an unidentified screen-equipped fitness tracker in its own Pixel advertising. We covered the mystery band in August because it does not match Fitbit Air, Fitbit Charge 6 or Pixel Watch 5.

A Fitbit Charge 7 was the obvious possibility, although there was nothing solid connecting that name to the device. Google could just as easily be preparing something new under the Fitbit or Google branding.

Source: IMDA via thetechoutlook

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The CIRQA Smart Band Pro name is right there

The clearest bit is a Garmin Connect resource called device_tutorial_alarms_message_1. Its text reads: “You can set alarms on your CIRQA Smart Band Pro in the Garmin Connect app.”

That would be interesting enough on its own, but it gets better. The exact same CIRQA Smart Band Pro reference is present in both Garmin Connect 5.28.1 and 5.29, so this is not something that briefly appeared in one release before disappearing.

The next few resources also appear to belong to the same alarm tutorial. They explain that the alarm vibrates the device, that pressing “either button” snoozes it, and that holding “either button” stops it.

Then comes another rather important line. A separate resource in that same group says: “You can set alarms on your CIRQA Smart Band in the Garmin Connect app.”

In other words, Garmin Connect separately names the CIRQA Smart Band Pro and CIRQA Smart Band. That makes the Pro reference harder to write off as Garmin simply attaching the wrong suffix to the existing product.

The standard CIRQA Smart Band launched in July as Garmin’s first screen-free smart band. It has a single side button, and Garmin specifically describes activities as being started by tapping that one button.

The wording inside Garmin Connect therefore does not match the current hardware. “Either button” only really makes sense if Garmin is referring to a device with at least two physical controls.

Audio feedback

Things get more interesting when you look at the surrounding tutorial resources. Garmin Connect contains instructions referring specifically to an “activity button” and a separate “controls button”.

The activity button can apparently start, pause and stop an activity. The controls button provides access to another menu and can be used to hear daily stats.

There is also tutorial text describing volume adjustment. According to the app, the activity button turns the volume up while the controls button turns it down, and another instruction says the user can wait for the volume level to be confirmed.

A separate assistance tutorial says holding the controls button can trigger assistance. Another line says an assistance request can be cancelled by holding either button until the user hears “Canceled”.

The references to volume, hearing daily stats and hearing confirmation messages are particularly interesting. They suggest some form of audio feedback may be involved, although the APK does not tell us whether that means an integrated speaker, another type of audio hardware or something handled through a connected device.

There is an important caveat here. The surrounding tutorial text is not explicitly labelled Pro, but its placement and wording strongly suggest it belongs to the same device flow.

A Pro version of a screenless wearable would need some way of offering more interaction without simply adding a display. Extra buttons plus spoken feedback would be one way Garmin could do it. It all fits.

So what is CIRQA Smart Band Pro?

For now, all we can say with confidence is that Garmin Connect explicitly contains the name “CIRQA Smart Band Pro”. The reference has survived across at least two releases of the app, and Garmin has separately included the normal CIRQA Smart Band name in the same tutorial resource group.

The surrounding code gives us a possible first look at what could make the Pro version different. Two physical buttons look like the strongest clue, while volume controls and spoken status information raise the possibility of some kind of audio feedback.

The latest Garmin Connect 5.29 build also adds new CIRQA-specific device identification code, another sign that Garmin is actively developing the CIRQA side of the app. Makes sense if you are planning to release a Pro version of the band, along with a smart ring.

APK teardown note

This article is based on an APK teardown. Code found inside an app can reveal features or devices that are under development, but there is no guarantee they will appear in a future public release.

The post Garmin app code reveals clues about CIRQA Smart Band Pro appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Ten Garmin models under one certification

The new ANATEL certification covers A05124, B05124, C05124, D05124, E05124, F05124, G05124, H05124, I05124 and AA5124. All ten sit under the same Brazilian homologation, which is exactly the sort of pattern you would expect if Garmin were certifying multiple physical versions of the same underlying device. And all were registered on the same day.

Ten variants would be rather strange for a normal Garmin watch. For a smart ring, though, it immediately makes sense.

Ring makers have to offer far more hardware sizes than watch manufacturers because there is no adjustable strap to make up the difference. For example, the current Oura Ring 5 comes in 8 sizes, from size 6 through 13. Interestingly, Oura Ring 4 had a wider range, 12 sizes, from 4 through 15. 

And Brazil is not the only place where these model numbers have started appearing.

China certified four members of the same family on September 1. C05124, E05124, G05124 and H05124 were all registered by Garmin’s Taiwanese entity. Each is simply described as a Bluetooth device.

That is a pretty useful extra clue. We now have four individual 05124 models turning up together in China, followed by a Brazilian certification covering ten variants from the same family.

AA5124 was already sitting next to the smart ring

The really interesting part is that 5124 did not appear out of nowhere.

Back in August, we reported on a Garmin device called the CIRQA SMART RING that briefly popped up in Indonesia’s telecommunications certification database. The listing appeared on August 12 and explicitly named the product as a smart ring before disappearing from the public database shortly afterwards.

Sitting right beside that certification was another Garmin fitness product carrying the model number AA5124. At the time, there was not enough information to connect the two with confidence. Now there is.

Garmin still has not announced the CIRQA Smart Ring, so there is a limit to how far we can take this. But if AA5124 belongs to the ring, as the growing regulatory trail now strongly suggests, the other 05124 variants are likely part of the same product family.

When could the Garmin CIRQA Smart Ring launch?

That is a lot of activity across several markets in a fairly short period. Regulatory approvals do not guarantee an immediate launch, but this is starting to look like a product moving through the final stages needed for commercial release.

Our guess would be a launch sometime in the final months of 2026, with October or early November looking like a reasonable window. Any later than that, and we are into the holiday shopping period.

Another option might be CES 2027 in Las Vegas. Garmin does not always save product launches for major trade shows, but CES would give it a very obvious stage for entering a new category. If nothing appears before the end of 2026, January starts to look like the next sensible window.

Either way, the recent filings suggest the CIRQA Smart Ring is getting closer. The main question now is whether Garmin wants it on sale before Christmas or prefers to make a bigger splash at the start of 2027.

This article originally appeared on Gadgets & Wearables, the first media outlet to report the story.

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So now we know what “Dual Solar” actually means. This is not just a solar ring around the display with some clever branding attached to it, Zepp Health is working on two separate surfaces that can generate power.

There really are two solar panels

We first started seeing signs of this setup earlier in the summer, when Zepp Health was working with separate measurements for power coming from the watch face and the case back. At the time, that was interesting but not enough to say with confidence that the T-Rex Dual Solar would actually have photovoltaic panels on both sides.

That ambiguity has now disappeared. The latest APK describes the watch face and case back as both having built-in photovoltaic panels. And each is getting its own charging measurement.

Even more interesting is the difference between them. The photovoltaic panel on the case back is larger than the panel around or beneath the watch face. So Zepp Health says its charging index will normally be higher when both receive the same amount of light.

That is a pretty unusual way to build a solar watch. Most solar wearables concentrate on getting light through or around the display. That’s because the display is obviously the part of the watch exposed to the sun while you are wearing it.

The rear panel creates a slightly different proposition. While the watch is strapped to your wrist, it is not going to see much sunlight at all. The obvious use would be taking the watch off and leaving it somewhere with both surfaces exposed, although exactly how Zepp Health expects owners to position it remains to be seen.

Zepp Health has created a Solar Charging Index

There is also a new way of measuring how much useful light each panel is receiving.

Zepp Health is calling it the Solar Charging Index. The watch can show separate values for the watch-face panel and the case-back panel, rather than simply telling you that solar charging is taking place.

The reference point is 50 kLux. When the watch face receives that level of light, Zepp Health defines its Solar Charging Index as 100%. That does not mean the battery is charging at 100% or that the watch has reached full solar output, it is essentially a reference scale for the amount of usable solar energy reaching the panel.

The larger case-back panel changes the numbers. Under identical lighting, Zepp Health says the back should normally report a higher Charging Index because it has a greater photovoltaic area.

This should make the solar system much more transparent than simply sticking a little sun icon on the screen. Owners should be able to see whether moving the watch, changing its angle or exposing the rear panel is actually improving the amount of energy coming in.

Solar Boost Mode makes more sense now

This also adds some context to the Solar Boost Mode we previously uncovered. When activated, the watch cuts back to essentials such as the time, battery level and solar information, while temporarily disabling a number of normal functions.

The idea appears to be simple. Reduce how much power the watch is consuming while those two photovoltaic panels are bringing energy in, giving solar charging a better chance of making a significant difference to the battery level.

Zepp Health is also building temperature protection into the system. Solar charging can pause when the watch becomes too hot, which is particularly relevant if someone leaves it sitting directly in strong sunlight to take advantage of that larger rear panel.

There are dedicated solar statistics as well, including separate information for the two charging surfaces. So this is looking less like the passive solar top-up used on some watches and more like a system Zepp Health wants owners to actively interact with.

The big unanswered question is how much extra battery life all of this actually produces. Two photovoltaic panels sound good on paper, but panel size, efficiency, power consumption and the amount of time the rear of the watch spends exposed to light will ultimately decide whether Dual Solar makes a noticeable difference.

At least the hardware idea is much clearer now. The Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar has already surfaced under model A2570, and Zepp Health is now putting together a fairly elaborate solar system around it, complete with two panels, individual charging measurements, Solar Boost Mode and temperature management.

APK teardown note

This article is based on an APK teardown. Code found inside an app can reveal features or devices that are under development, but there is no guarantee they will appear in a future public release.

The post Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar really does have two solar panels appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Digging further into the FCC documents gives us one useful clue. WM50 is based on the same hardware platform as Whoop MG, but Whoop removed the NFC subsystem and its supporting circuitry.

What we know about WM50

The FCC approved WM50 on May 15, listing it simply as a “Sensor Device” operating over Bluetooth between 2.402 and 2.480 GHz. Singapore followed on June 10, where IMDA also registered WHOOP WM50 as a Bluetooth sensor device.

Neither filing gives us a commercial product name. There is nothing identifying it as Whoop 6.0, another MG model, a cheaper Whoop or anything else, so for now WM50 is simply an unreleased Whoop device.

The more interesting detail sits deeper in the FCC paperwork. Whoop states that WM50 is “derived directly from the WS50 hardware platform”, with no additional components added to the PCB.

WS50 is the regulatory model number used for Whoop MG. The standard Whoop 5.0 uses WG50 instead.

That does not tell us what WM50 will eventually become. It only tells us which existing hardware platform Whoop used as its basis.

The NFC removal is the interesting part

Whoop identifies one specific change from WS50. The company says the “NFC Tag Reader transmitter subsystem and its associated supporting circuitry” have been removed from WM50.

The likely role of that NFC hardware is not the actual charging itself. The current Whoop MG has a 13.56 MHz NFC radio, and the WB50 PowerPack also uses 13.56 MHz alongside Bluetooth. That suggests the NFC link is there so the sensor and battery pack can recognise each other and exchange information, potentially including things like battery status. Whoop does not publicly spell out the exact function, so that part remains an informed interpretation rather than a confirmed feature.

That leaves WM50 with Bluetooth connectivity in its FCC filing, but without the 13.56 MHz NFC radio found in WS50. Nothing in the documents explains why Whoop made that change or what it means for the finished product.

WM50 removes that NFC subsystem completely. That could mean Whoop has changed how the sensor communicates with the PowerPack, or that WM50 is intended to work differently in some other way. The FCC documents do not tell us which.

So the interesting thing here is not simply that one radio has disappeared. Whoop has taken the existing WS50 platform and deliberately removed a component that appears to be involved in communication with the battery pack, and we do not yet know why.

Our takeaway

WM50 could eventually sit somewhere else in Whoop’s lineup, but there is no evidence yet to say where. It could also serve a completely different purpose, and the regulatory documents do not give us enough information to narrow that down.

One thing we can probably rule out is the muscle oxygen sensor Whoop is working on. That project points to a very different type of wearable, designed for use on different parts of the body and built around optical sensing and muscle oxygen measurements.

For now, WM50 remains a mystery, although we may not have to wait too much longer for another clue. The FCC confidentiality period covering its internal and external photos lifts on November 11, 2026, which should give us a much better idea of what Whoop is actually building.

The post Whoop has an unreleased WM50 and one hardware detail stands out appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.