Masimo Partners With Google, Develops ‘Wear OS’ Reference Platform

IRVINE, California—Masimo, a medical innovation company, announced its partnership with Google to develop a new reference platform for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) building Google’s “Wear OS” smartwatches. The partnership will incorporate Masimo’s biosensing technologies and standardized smartwatch devices using the Masimo reference platform, enabling OEMs to build and bring Wear OS smartwatches to the market. 

Masimo’s reference platform supports the Wear OS ecosystem and includes health and wellness tracking tools that aim to provide reliable data, integration with Android smartphones and a high-performance experience. Additionally, the Masimo platform is expected to be compatible with existing Google apps and services created for the Wear OS platform.

The devices’ interiors—including hardware and software components and biosensors—will be designed, provided and tested by Masimo to ensure performance and user experience. The device’s health and wellness capabilities will feature the biosensing technologies and analytics that power the “Masimo W1” and the upcoming “Masimo Freedom” smartwatches. The Masimo reference platform allows these components, features and benefits to be available for smartwatch manufacturers building Wear OS smartwatches.

“We’re excited to partner with Google to develop a reference platform for Wear OS that leverages our expert engineering capabilities,” said Joe Kiani, founder and chief executive officer of Masimo. “Our ability to craft next-generation biosensing technologies, precision components and advanced signal processing algorithms, with rigor and discipline honed over decades, is an excellent foundation for creating a world-class smartwatch reference platform. From hardware to software, Masimo engineers are optimizing the ‘guts’ of the smartwatch and working with Google to offer OEMs an incredible Wear OS smartwatch solution. As numerous leading hospital monitor manufacturers incorporate Masimo monitoring technologies to offer hospitals the best possible patient monitoring solutions, we expect this new wearable platform to supercharge smartwatch OEMs’ abilities to create innovative, competitive and truly compelling Wear OS smartwatches for consumers everywhere.”

“With Masimo’s reference platform, smartwatch makers are able to benefit from state-of-the-art biosensing technology and quickly bring their Wear OS devices to market, at scale,” said Bjorn Kilburn, general manager of Wear OS at Google. “Together, we’re promoting innovation across the Wear OS ecosystem that provides end users with high-performing, feature-rich devices to choose from.”