Google is giving the Pixel Watch 5 a new safety feature that could prove far more important than another fitness metric.
Breathing Emergency Detection is designed to identify a breathing emergency. It can be used alongside the watch’s existing emergency and health-monitoring features, and is part of a broader push to make the Pixel Watch a more proactive health and safety device.
The Pixel Watch 5 already builds on Google’s existing safety features, including Loss of Pulse Detection. This feature can contact emergency services on the wearer’s behalf. The new breathing-focused feature is clearly designed around detecting potentially serious breathing emergencies. However, Google is clear that it isn’t intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.
There are some important limitations. It may not detect every breathing emergency, and Google says it isn’t intended for people with chronically low oxygen saturation, pregnant users, or people with conditions including heart failure, COPD and sickle cell anaemia. It also isn’t a replacement for a dedicated real-time oxygen monitor.
Sleep is another major focus for this year’s wearable. Sleep Breathing Quality analyses minute-by-minute changes in blood oxygen levels while you sleep. This helps you understand how your breathing patterns could relate to energy, recovery and heart health. Sleep stage tracking is also 15% more accurate, according to Google.
And, like the Pixel Watch 4, the Watch 5 also offers Readiness Score, support for more than 50 exercises, dual-frequency GPS and heart-rate tracking. Google Health Coach, meanwhile, uses Gemini to provide personalised fitness and recovery guidance. However, it requires a Google Health Premium subscription.
Health and fitness aside, the Pixel Watch 5 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with an Actua 360 AMOLED LTPO display reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Both are fairly lightweight, however; the 45mm model weighs 36.7g while the 41mm tips the scales at 31g. The watch also has IP68 protection and is designed for use up to 50 metres underwater, ideal for tracking swimming.
Battery life is rated at up to 30 hours for the 41mm model and 40 hours for the 45mm, with Battery Saver extending those figures further.
For a smartwatch that spends most of its time quietly sitting on your wrist, Breathing Emergency Detection could be one of the Pixel Watch 5’s most meaningful additions. Just bear in mind that Google explicitly positions it as a safety feature rather than a medical device.
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