Apple spent September 9 on stage in Cupertino talking about the Series 12 and the redesigned Ultra 4. Two weeks later, the more disruptive watch story of the month will not come from Apple at all. On September 23, at Meta Connect, Meta is expected to finally show off its first real commercial smartwatch, a device that has been rumored, shelved, and rebuilt inside the company for years.
It is reportedly called Malibu 2, and it is not really trying to out spec the Apple Watch Ultra 4 or a Galaxy Watch on sensors alone. Its real job, according to reporting from Wareable and other outlets that track Meta’s wearable roadmap, is to sit on your wrist and quietly control the glasses on your face.
Short answer
Meta is expected to unveil its first true smartwatch, code-named Malibu 2, at Meta Connect on September 23, 2026. Reported features include continuous heart rate, blood oxygen and sleep tracking, and a built-in Meta AI assistant that does not require a subscription. The headline feature is EMG muscle-signal sensing, the same neural interface technology used in Meta’s Neural Band, which turns the watch into a silent gesture controller for the company’s Ray-Ban AI glasses. Pricing, exact battery life and availability have not been officially confirmed.
A Smartwatch That Answers to Your Glasses First
Every mainstream smartwatch made in the last decade has the same basic pitch: put a small computer on your wrist and let you glance at it instead of pulling out your phone. Malibu 2 is built around a different premise. Meta has spent two years pushing its Ray-Ban smart glasses from a niche camera gadget into a genuine AI platform, and the biggest interface problem with any face-worn computer is that you cannot exactly tap a touchscreen that is sitting on the bridge of your nose.
Meta’s answer is electromyography, or EMG, a sensor technology that reads the tiny electrical signals your forearm muscles produce when you move your fingers, even if the movement is too small to see. It is the same tech behind the Neural Band that ships with Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses, which lets a wearer scroll, select and dismiss things with a pinch or a subtle wrist turn. Reports on Malibu 2 describe Meta folding that same neural interface into a standalone watch body, so the gesture controller and the fitness tracker become one device instead of two separate bands competing for space on your arm.
Health Tracking, Minus the Subscription Wall
Underneath the glasses-controller angle, Malibu 2 is still expected to do normal smartwatch things. Continuous heart rate, blood oxygen readings and sleep analysis are all part of the reported feature set, alongside a built-in Meta AI assistant you can talk to directly from your wrist. What stands out is the business model around it: multiple reports say Meta plans to offer its core health metrics without locking the useful parts behind a monthly fee, a direct jab at the subscription tiers that Whoop and, to a lesser extent, Oura use to gate deeper insights.
That positioning also puts Malibu 2 in an odd spot next to the wrist-based assistants Apple and Google are racing to ship. Apple just rebuilt its own voice assistant for watchOS 27, and our breakdown of the new Siri and which Apple Watches actually get it covers how uneven that rollout is expected to be across older hardware. Meta does not have that legacy hardware problem. If Malibu 2 ships with Meta AI baked in from day one, it skips the years-long compatibility mess Apple is currently working through.
Meta Has Tried This Before, and Quietly Killed It
This is not Meta’s first attempt at a watch. The company was reportedly building a full fitness-tracking smartwatch, complete with cameras for video calls, back in 2021 and 2022, before shelving the project entirely as part of a wider pullback in hardware spending. That original device never got an official name outside leaks, and it never reached a store shelf.
What changed is the surrounding ecosystem. Back then, Meta did not have a hit AI wearable to build around. Now it does. Ray-Ban Meta glasses have become one of the more genuine successes to come out of Meta’s Reality Labs division, and the broader AI glasses category grew by more than 300 percent in the year leading into 2026. A watch that exists mainly to make those glasses easier to control is a much easier sell internally than a standalone fitness gadget competing head-on with Apple, and it explains why the project resurfaced under a new codename instead of staying dead.
How Malibu 2 Compares to What Is Already on Shelves
Most of Malibu 2’s specifics are still unconfirmed, so treat the row below as a snapshot of what has been reported rather than an official spec sheet. Still, laid next to Apple’s brand-new lineup, the differences in what each device is actually trying to do are clear.
| Device | Standout Feature | On-Wrist AI Assistant | Subscription Needed for Full Data | Reveal / Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Malibu 2 (expected) | EMG gesture control for Ray-Ban AI glasses | Meta AI, reportedly free | No, per current reports | Reveal Sept 23, 2026 |
| Apple Watch Series 12 | New S11 chip, Ceramic Shield 2 | Siri (watchOS 27) | No | On sale from Sept 18, 2026 |
| Apple Watch Ultra 4 | Thinner case, blood pressure alerts, satellite SOS | Siri (watchOS 27) | No | On sale from Sept 18, 2026 |
| Whoop 5.0 | Screen-free recovery and strain tracking | No built-in assistant | Yes, required for any data | Available now |
The subscription question is where Malibu 2’s positioning looks sharpest. The chart below lines up how each wearable brand currently handles access to your own health data.
What We Still Do Not Know
Still rumor territory
Meta has not officially confirmed Malibu 2’s name, price, battery life or which countries get it first. Everything above comes from reporting ahead of the September 23 keynote, not a Meta press release. Treat the EMG gesture feature and subscription-free framing as the expected pitch, not a locked spec sheet, until Meta actually takes the stage.
A few practical questions remain open. It is unclear whether Malibu 2 will work as a standalone fitness watch for people who do not own Ray-Ban glasses, or whether the gesture control features simply switch off without them. Battery life is also a real unknown: EMG sensing and a display running at the same time is a heavier power draw than a typical fitness band, and Meta’s own glasses are already known for needing frequent charges. Pricing is the biggest question mark of all, since Meta could position this as an affordable entry point to its ecosystem or as a premium companion piece sold alongside its priciest Ray-Ban Display glasses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Meta’s Malibu 2 meant to replace an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch?
Not directly. Reporting so far frames Malibu 2 as a companion device for Meta’s Ray-Ban AI glasses first and a fitness tracker second, rather than a head-on competitor built to beat Apple or Samsung on raw sensor count.
Does Malibu 2 need Ray-Ban glasses to work?
That has not been confirmed. The EMG gesture features are built around controlling Meta’s glasses, but the health tracking and Meta AI functions are expected to work as a normal standalone smartwatch as well.
When can I actually buy it?
Meta is expected to reveal the watch at Meta Connect on September 23, 2026. Meta has a pattern of announcing hardware and shipping it within weeks rather than months, based on how it has handled recent Ray-Ban launches, but an exact release date has not been confirmed.
Will it work with an iPhone?
Meta’s existing Ray-Ban glasses and the Meta View app already support both iOS and Android, so a watch built to pair with those glasses would be expected to follow the same approach, though Meta has not made a formal statement about platform support for Malibu 2.
The Bottom Line
Apple used its September event to make its best smartwatches slightly better. Meta is trying something riskier: convincing people that a watch’s real value is what it does for the AI glasses on your face, not the notifications on your wrist. Whether that pitch lands depends entirely on details nobody outside Meta has confirmed yet, from price to battery life to how good the EMG gestures feel in practice. September 23 is when we find out if Malibu 2 is a genuine second act for Meta hardware, or another wearable that looks better in a keynote slide than on an actual wrist.
Sources and further reading
- The Information: Meta revives smartwatch plan, targets 2026 launch
- Engadget: How to watch Meta Connect 2026
- GSMArena: A Meta smartwatch is reportedly coming this year
About this article: GeekBlog covers U.S. technology news, AI, phones, smartwatches and gaming. Every story is written and checked under our Editorial Policy. Spotted a mistake or have a story tip? Contact our editors.
