It would be hard to test both watches side-by-side under the exact same circumstances because you’re working with two fundamentally different operating systems. As it happened, I wanted to stack the deck in Google’s favor, so during my time with the watch, I mostly used the Apple Watch for things like turn-by-turn directions, checking the time, and using apps. The Pixel Watch was just along for the ride.
As a matter of fact, the Pixel 7, by design only had one of my mail accounts installed and just a few apps so it intentionally got fewer notifications than the Apple Watch. I never used either watch to stream media, but I occasionally used the Apple Watch to receive a call. Both watches tracked my sleep, and both watches tracked the few workouts I actually did.
All this is to say, I never came close to meeting the same conditions under which Google claims the watch can last for 24 hours. Put simply, under these conditions, the Pixel Watch should have trounced the Apple Watch handily. This is especially true considering the Apple Watch is only advertised as having an “all-day” battery life which Apple interprets as 18 hours. This should have been a simple test. It was not.
