Most client electronics gadgets use USB-C today, which is de facto handy as a result of you’ll be able to merely have a single cable that fees all of your devices. Even Apple, which had lengthy caught to its weapons with the Lightning port, lastly gave in and switched to USB-C after the European Union handed laws forcing tech corporations to embrace the port as an ordinary. But one class of devices the place USB-C is surprisingly unusual is smartwatches. Most of those wearable gadgets use proprietary charging strategies, and, to make it even worse, some corporations use totally different chargers for his or her fashions, throwing charging compatibility out the window.
It’s a complete mess, to say the least, and that makes it arduous to juice up any smartwatch with simply any cable. While this is occurring within the smartwatch class, USB Type-C exists, and it has already made its approach onto many fashionable devices. Interestingly, even among the main smartwatch manufacturers provide USB-C ports on their different merchandise, like Apple, Google, and Samsung, however do not have it on their wearables. So why have not smartwatches made the change but, you may ask? Well, it is that approach for one good motive: water resistance. Smartwatches usually do not use USB-C ports as a result of it makes it difficult to maintain them dust- and water-tight.
Unlike your telephone, smartwatches want to resist water and mud higher since you put on them in your wrist, and thus they’re usually extra uncovered. Besides, you may wish to use your smartwatch to trace water-related actions like swimming, water snowboarding, and leisure scuba diving, all of which require a larger degree of water resistance to stop injury. As a end result, the trade-off for even the most effective smartwatches has been to make use of proprietary options like pogo pin connectors and magnetic charging pucks.
Some smartwatches really use USB-C
Proprietary smartwatch charging options are fairly frequent, to the detriment of customers, as a result of they’re usually incompatible with one another and could be arduous to exchange should you lose yours. However, some producers have really made the hassle to resolve this difficulty by providing USB-C ports. So far, we have seen some fashions in the marketplace characteristic USB-C ports, however they’re made by lesser-known manufacturers. One instance is the awkwardly named boAt Storm Call 4 smartwatch, which was launched in May 2026 within the Indian market.
The boAt Storm Call 4, alongside its pricier sibling, the boAt Ultima Vogue 2, affords a USB-C port for charging the smartwatch. There’s additionally the Colmi P80, one other smartwatch mannequin from a lesser-known firm that comes with a USB-C charging port. Colmi claims that the P80 is IP67-rated for mud and water resistance, and the corporate does embrace a rubber seal to attempt to defend the watch from water or mud entry by means of the USB-C port. Perhaps that is the way in which the corporate manages to incorporate a USB-C port and nonetheless provide water and mud ingress safety.
The boAt Storm Call 4, however, would not appear to have a rubber seal to guard the port however claims to be IP68-rated. There are additionally many extra examples on AliExpress that supply USB-C charging ports. Of course, all these fashions are from small manufacturers, and we will not actually take their phrase at face worth on the IP ranking claims. Regardless, maybe it is time mainstream smartwatch manufacturers appeared into how they will provide the most effective of each worlds: USB-C charging and water resistance assist.