Muse Charm: Meta's AI Pendant Hints at a Smartwatch

At Meta's Connect conference in late September, Mark Zuckerberg held up a pendant and announced the Muse Charm, a device with the company's Muse AI agent. CNET reports it will ship as soon as December. Many have called it an AI Tamagotchi, but CNET's writer saw something else: a strapless smartwatch preview.

The Charm runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, the same silicon inside Samsung's latest smartwatches. CNET notes that Qualcomm optimized this chip for AI-ready wearables, including both watches and pendants. That makes a wrist-strap version technically straightforward.

Meta has been reported to be working on a watch for years, according to CNET. Its existing neural band uses EMG for gesture control but got no hardware update this year. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told CNET last year that a display or watch-like evolution of the neural band could be on the way. Meta also partnered with Garmin for fitness tracking.

Muse AI is Meta's biggest priority now, appearing on desktops, smartphones, and soon all its smart glasses. CNET writes that the Charm could easily gain a wrist strap and a watch OS. A smartwatch would give Meta another way into lifestyle wearables and provide fitness data for its AI.

Meta declined to comment on watch plans when asked by CNET. The writer suggests the Charm may be the beta test for a modular device that works as a pendant and a wrist-worn item without committing to either form.

For now, the Muse Charm is a pendant. The chipset and design, however, point toward a watch.

• AI
• Meta
• Muse Charm
• Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite
• smartwatch
• wearables