What if Microsoft made a watch? A true watch, not the Band, not something from the labs of Nokia but a real watch from the Xbox team.

While we likely won’t ever be able to buy one, it does appear that the Xbox team did toy with this idea at one point in the recent past. We know this because images of what is likely an early prototype have appeared on Twitter.

The images posted by Hikari Calyx, which were first spotted by Jez, show what is possibly a precursor to the Microsoft Band. If you didn’t know, the Band started out as a product inside the Xbox team but was eventually moved into its own org as it didn’t quite align with the Xbox mission at that time.

Looking the prototype, the size appears to be similar to that of an Apple Watch or the Fitbit Blaze and has a similar style to the UI that shipped with the band.

Based on what we can see, the hardware supports a heart rate monitor, GPS, and featured workouts too. The device was powered by a standard USB charger but seeing as this is an early prototype, I’d expect a retail version to use a smaller charging port.

Sadly, I seriously doubt that this device will ever see the retail shelves as Microsoft has been moving away from building out niche hardware products. And the fact that the company shelved the Band, I can’t image that they would bring out an Xbox branded watch.

That being said, it would be interesting to know what the team had envisioned for this hardware and what it would have evolved into if it did ever make its way out of the R&D labs.

Tagged with Xbox, Xbox Watch