Smelt: A mysterious second-gen Moto 360

Smelt. As in… the fish?

No, for our purposes, we’re talking about the probable second-gen Moto 360 smartwatch codenamed Smelt. Smelt will likely be the successor of the first Moto 360, which was obviously codenamed Minnow.

When the Moto 360 hit the shelves in fall of 2014, it was highly coveted for its stylish design and round watch face. As the market crowds with smartwatches — some born from legitimate luxury companies like Tag Heuer — Motorola and Android are undoubtedly feeling the pressure not only to keep up with but to beat the Joneses. 

Phandroid was the first to report the nascent smartwatch:

We received a tip from a popular app developer who recently noticed a mysterious Motorola-built Android Wear device pinging his Android developer console from Mundelein, a city not too far from Motorola’s HQ in Chicago, Illinois. The device is carrying the codename “Smelt” and is reportedly running Android 5.1. On the hardware front, it carries a screen resolution of 360 x 360 and is powered by an “armeabi-v7a.”

If improvements are made to the already popular (despite a plastic backing and short battery life) Moto 360, this thing is bound to be a true marketplace competitor.

Add to that the fact that the device will be released after the Apple Watch, thereby pushing the use of wearables even further into mainstream consciousness, and Moto 360 could be well set up for success. 

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