What is unclear is whether the software being tested will actually be Wear OS 5.1 or Wear OS 6. Mishaal Rahman, writing for Android Authority, points out that Google appears to have an annual release schedule for Wear OS, suggesting that Wear OS 6 is being tested. He also says that Google's last point update for Wear OS version 3.5 was in 2022. There were no such updates for Wear OS 4, which led directly to Wear OS 5. However, since Google is testing Wear OS 5.1 in the market, PixelWatch 2it seems more likely that we will see a return to point updates.
The first Wear OS 5 watch, the Galaxy Watch 7. | Image credit: PhoneArena
Still, as Rahman notes, Google could decide to replace the Wear OS 5.1 name with Wear OS 6.0 before the software hits the market. He says the truth will depend on whether Google includes new APIs or app-related system behaviors in the new version it's testing. If so, that would indicate that the version of Wear OS Google is working on internally will eventually be released as Wear OS 6, and may not arrive until next year. At that point, Android15 will soon be a year old and Google will apparently have returned to its old schedule.