OnePlus has been teasing its move into the smartwatch market since the OnePlus 8T launched at the end of 2020. Now we're getting closer to launch, and more details have been published. 

In a forum post, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that it's going to launch a watch next week and that it will have a long-lasting battery and will be built on its own operating system.

Not much is given away in the forum post, so specs and exact details haven't been confirmed yet, but we do know that OnePlus is launching it at an "affordable price point" and will feature a design that helps it stand out "from the crowd".

It was in a reply to a community member's question that Lau confirmed the focus on long-lasting battery and its own operating system. 

This official post was published a few hours after a leak seemed to reveal all the important specs. If the leak is accurate the OnePlus Watch will feature a 46mm case and be fully water and dust resistant up to IP68 rating. 

As you'd suspect, it'll feature fitness tracking capabilities too. The details shared by Ishan Agarwal on Twitter suggest we're going to see sleep, stress, blood oxygen saturation and heart rate monitoring capabilities. 

Of course, it'll mirror your smartphone notifications and could accept calls as well as being able to control the OnePlus TV in the markets where that exists. 

Before OnePlus confirmed it, there was one spec in particular which indicated that this won't be Wear OS: the battery life. The leak suggests its Warp Charge capability will give you a week's worth of charge in just 20 minutes. 

Presuming that week's worth of charge isn't even a full battery, that would suggest this definitely isn't a watch using Google's smartwatch software. Those watches tend to last a couple of days at best. 

Even the longest-lasting watches that make use of a secondary monochrome display like those from Casio and TicWatch struggle to last beyond a four or five days on a full charge. 

This approach to wearables is similar to that taken by Huawei and Samsung with their respective Watch GT and Galaxy Watch lines. 

OnePlus will launch the new watch at its OnePlus 9 series event on 23 March, so thankfully there's not too much time before we find out how many of these specs are accurate. 

This post was first published on 17 March and updated on 18 March to reflect developments and official confirmation from OnePlus.