Smartwatch Statistics 2026: Shipments, Brand Share and Health Use

Apple Watch shipments grew 8% year over year in 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. That is Apple’s first annual shipment growth since 2022, and the inflection point that pulled the overall smartwatch market back into expansion after its first-ever annual decline.

The broader category grew approximately 4% in 2025 after falling around 7% in 2024, with global wrist-worn device shipments reaching 45.6 million units in Q1 2025 per IDC’s Quarterly Global Wrist-Worn Device Market Tracker. Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi now collectively account for roughly half of all global smartwatch shipments, while clinical evidence for on-wrist ECG and atrial fibrillation detection has crossed the threshold that diagnostic adjuncts are typically measured against. The data below covers brand share, regional ownership, operating-system splits, health-feature accuracy, and the through-2027 forecast.

Key Takeaways

• Apple held 23% of global smartwatch shipments in 2025, gaining 1 percentage point over the prior year and reclaiming clear category leadership.
• Apple Watch shipments rebounded 23% year over year in Q3 2025, ending a seven-quarter shipment decline streak that began in 2023.
• China’s smartwatch market shipped 17.6 million units in Q1 2025, up 37.6% year on year, boosted by government subsidies.
• A peer-reviewed meta-analysis pegged Apple Watch ECG sensitivity at 94.8% (95% CI: 91.7% to 96.8%) and specificity at 95% (95% CI: 88.6% to 97.8%) across 4,241 participants in 11 studies.
• Garmin’s fitness segment grew 33% to $2.36 billion in full-year 2025, outpacing every other major wearable vendor on the percentage line.

Editor’s Choice

• Global smartwatch shipments hit 120 million units through the first three quarters of 2025, up 7.3% year on year.
• Q1 2025 smartwatch shipments alone reached 34.8 million units, a 4.8% year-on-year increase.
• Huawei held 17% of 2025 smartwatch shipments, with Xiaomi at 9% and Samsung and Imoo tied at around 7% each.
• Apple Watch Series 11 launched with up to 24 hours of battery life and fast charging that delivers up to eight hours of use from a 15-minute charge.
• Garmin’s Q4 2025 fitness segment grew 31% year over year, generating $159 million of operating income at a 30% operating margin.

Recent Developments

• September 19, 2025: Apple launched Apple Watch Series 11 with hypertension notifications, sleep score, and 5G connectivity, priced from $399.
• January 9, 2025: JACC: Advances published a meta-analysis pegging Apple Watch ECG sensitivity at 94.8% and specificity at 95% across 4,241 participants.
• December 2025: Counterpoint Research reported Apple Watch Q3 2025 shipments grew 23% year over year, ending a seven-quarter decline streak.
• February 2026: Counterpoint published full-year 2025 share data showing Apple at 23%, Huawei at 17%, Xiaomi at 9%.
• Q1 2025: China smartwatch shipments grew 37.6% year on year to 17.6 million units, boosted by government subsidies per IDC.

Global Smartwatch Market Share by Brand

Apple led global smartwatch shipments in 2025 with 23% of unit shipments, according to Counterpoint Research, while Huawei held 17%, Xiaomi 9%, and Samsung and Imoo each at around 7%. The top five brands together accounted for roughly 63% of global shipments, with the remaining share split across regional and lower-priced challengers.

• Apple’s 23% share reflects a 1-percentage-point gain over 2024.
• Huawei’s 17% share was driven primarily by HarmonyOS ecosystem expansion across the Chinese smartphone base.
• Xiaomi was the fastest-growing smartwatch maker among the top 5 through the first three quarters of 2025, per IDC’s tracker.
• Imoo’s around 7% share runs almost entirely on kids’ smartwatches in China and adjacent markets, a category Apple does not contest.
• Samsung’s around 7% share held flat, with Galaxy Watch volumes concentrated in Samsung’s installed-smartphone base.

Source: Counterpoint Research, Global Smartwatch Shipments Market Share Quarterly, February 2026

The 2025 ranking matters because it reverses the narrative. For two years, the story was “smartwatches plateaued, and Apple slipped.” For 2026 planning, the more accurate framing is that a portfolio refresh and a substantive new health feature can still re-accelerate a hardware category that the market wrote off as mature.

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Smartwatch Shipments and Annual Growth

Global smartwatch shipments returned to growth in 2025, expanding approximately 4% year over year after the first-ever annual decline of around 7% in 2024. Counterpoint’s mid-2025 forecast projected approximately 7% YoY growth by the end of 2025, with the final tally landing slightly below that projection as memory pricing and consumer demand softened in the back half.

• Q1 2025 global smartwatch shipments: 34.8 million units, up 4.8% year on year.
• Q1 2025 wrist-worn shipments (smartwatches plus basic bands): 45.6 million units, up 10.5% year on year.
• First three quarters of 2025 smartwatch shipments: 120 million units, up 7.3% year on year.
• First three quarters of 2025 wrist-worn shipments: 150 million units, up 10.0% year on year.
• Q3 2025 Apple Watch shipments alone grew 23% year over year.

Source: IDC Quarterly Global Wrist-Worn Device Market Tracker; Counterpoint Research

By the numbers: IDC reported 45.6 million wrist-worn devices shipped in Q1 2025, a 10.5% year-on-year jump. Of that, 34.8 million were smartwatches. The category had its first clean quarterly growth in over a year, and Counterpoint’s full-year tally confirmed the inflection.

Smartwatch Operating System Market Share

watchOS retained category leadership in 2025 because Apple’s 23% share of unit shipments runs entirely on Apple’s own platform, while HarmonyOS captured most of Huawei’s 17% and Wear OS powered Samsung’s around 7% alongside a tail of smaller vendors. The remaining share is split across proprietary RTOS implementations on basic and kids’ smartwatches.

• watchOS share approximates Apple’s 23% unit share since the platform is sold exclusively on Apple Watch hardware.
• HarmonyOS share approximates Huawei’s 17% unit share and is growing fastest in China.
• Wear OS share is anchored by Samsung’s around 7% plus a fragmented long tail of Google-aligned vendors.
• Imoo’s around 7% share runs on the company’s proprietary kids’ OS, not Wear OS.
• RTOS implementations cover most basic and lower-priced devices not counted in the top five.

Source: Derived from Counterpoint Research vendor shares, 2025

US Smartwatch Adoption and Ownership

The United States remains one of the highest-penetration smartwatch markets globally, with US ownership consistently tracking near the Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (excluding India) recovery cohort flagged by IDC for 2025 growth. Apple holds the dominant share in the US smartwatch installed base, with most independent surveys placing penetration around one in four adults.

• The US is one of the key regions IDC cited for strong 2025 recovery alongside Western Europe and Latin America.
• US smartwatch demand benefits from Apple Watch’s deep integration with the iPhone installed base.
• Q1 2025 saw broad US recovery per IDC’s regional commentary.
• Apple’s Series 11 launch in September 2025 pulled forward US upgrade cycles.
• US health-feature interest is concentrated on ECG, irregular rhythm notifications, and new hypertension alerts.

Source: IDC Quarterly Global Wrist-Worn Device Market Tracker, Q1 2025

UK Smartwatch Ownership

UK smartwatch ownership is dominated by Apple, with the brand consistently accounting for more than half of UK smartwatch sales since 2023. UK consumers also show high engagement with health-tracking features, mirroring the global pattern in which fitness and heart-rate monitoring are the most-cited reasons for purchase.

• UK consumers favor Apple Watch for its tight pairing with smartphones in the iOS ecosystem.
• Wearable ownership in the UK skews toward adults aged 25 to 49.
• Smartwatches are the largest single category within UK wearable tech ownership.
• UK demand for Apple customer loyalty data and retention reinforces Apple Watch upgrade rates.
• Series 11 and Ultra 3 launches landed in UK availability windows aligned with global launch dates in September 2025.

Source: Industry sales data, Apple regional disclosures

China Smartwatch Market and Subsidy Impact

China was the single largest growth driver in the 2025 smartwatch recovery, with Q1 2025 shipments of 17.6 million units up 37.6% year on year per IDC. IDC explicitly attributed the growth to government subsidies. Through the first three quarters of 2025, China shipped 40.4 million smartwatches, up 21.8% year on year.

• Q1 2025 China smartwatch shipments: 17.6 million units, up 37.6% YoY.
• First three quarters of 2025 China shipments: 40.4 million units, up 21.8% YoY.
• Huawei was the market leader globally for the past 9 months through Q3 2025, anchored by China demand.
• Xiaomi was the fastest-growing top-5 smartwatch maker through the first three quarters of 2025.
• Imoo’s around 7% global share is concentrated in China kids’ smartwatches.

Source: IDC Quarterly Global Wrist-Worn Device Market Tracker

Source: IDC; Counterpoint Research, 2025

China’s subsidy-driven surge is the most consequential policy lever any single market has pulled in the wearable category to date. It also reshaped global rankings: Huawei’s nine-month leadership streak through Q3 2025 was effectively underwritten by domestic demand that responded directly to subsidies, not by global share gains against Apple.

Health Tracking Accuracy: Apple Watch ECG and Atrial Fibrillation Detection

A peer-reviewed systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis published in JACC: Advances on January 9, 2025, reported Apple Watch ECG sensitivity of 94.8% (95% CI: 91.7% to 96.8%) and specificity of 95% (95% CI: 88.6% to 97.8%) for atrial fibrillation detection. The analysis pooled 4,241 participants across 11 studies, with authors concluding the device demonstrates high diagnostic accuracy in detecting AF, providing a convenient diagnostic option for patients while flagging study heterogeneity.

• Pooled sensitivity: 94.8% (95% CI: 91.7% to 96.8%).
• Pooled specificity: 95% (95% CI: 88.6% to 97.8%).
• Sample size: 4,241 participants across 11 studies.
• Authors flagged substantial heterogeneity among studies and called for further studies with better methodology.
• The Apple Watch is positioned as a convenient diagnostic option, not a replacement for standard 12-lead ECG.

Source: JACC: Advances, Systematic Review and Diagnostic Meta-Analysis, January 9, 2025

Key finding: The JACC: Advances meta-analysis found Apple Watch ECG sensitivity at 94.8% and specificity at 95% across 4,241 participants, moving smartwatch-based AF screening from a marketing claim into a peer-reviewed diagnostic adjunct with documented accuracy bounds.

Hypertension Notifications and Sleep Score: New Health Features

Apple Watch Series 11, announced September 9, 2025, with availability September 19, introduced notifications for signs of chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, plus a sleep score for new insights into sleep quality. The device offers up to 24 hours of battery life and fast charging that delivers up to eight hours from a 15-minute charge, with 5G cellular support in select markets.

• Hypertension notifications target signs of chronic high blood pressure, not a clinical diagnosis.
• Sleep score adds a new insight into sleep quality on top of existing sleep-stage tracking.
• Battery life: up to 24 hours.
• Fast charge: 15-minute charge delivers up to eight hours of use.
• Series 11 starts at $399.

Source: Apple Newsroom, September 9, 2025

Why it matters: Hypertension notifications and sleep score arrived in Series 11 alongside the Ultra 3 satellite-connectivity option and the lower-priced SE 3. The combined refresh moves consumer health features from incremental updates to a feature axis competitors must now race against, and it explains why Counterpoint flagged the 2025 portfolio as the catalyst for Apple’s first year of growth since 2022.

Garmin Fitness Segment: Revenue and Growth

Garmin’s fitness segment grew 33% year over year in full-year 2025 to $2.36 billion in revenue, per the company’s 8-K filings with the SEC. The outdoor segment grew more modestly at 5% to $2.05 billion. In Q4 2025 alone, the fitness segment expanded 31% year over year and produced $159 million of operating income at a 30% operating margin.

• FY2025 fitness segment revenue: $2.36 billion, up 33% YoY.
• FY2025 outdoor segment revenue: $2.05 billion, up 5% YoY.
• Q4 2025 fitness segment growth: 31% YoY.
• Q4 2025 fitness operating income: $159 million at a 30% operating margin.
• Q3 2025 fitness segment growth: 30% YoY with $194 million of operating income.

Source: Garmin Ltd. 8-K filings with the SEC, FY2025

By the numbers: Garmin’s fitness segment compounded 33% to $2.36 billion in 2025 while Apple, the category leader, grew Apple Watch unit shipments 8% YoY. Garmin’s approximately $7.9 billion 2026 revenue guidance implies the fitness-led acceleration carries into the new year.

Smartwatch Pricing and Premium Segment Trends

Counterpoint cited next-generation hardware and software features, increased consumer preference for high-end smartwatches among the catalysts behind the 2025 inflection. With Series 11 priced at $399, Counterpoint attributed Apple’s 2025 growth to a complete refresh of its portfolio with the introduction of the Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3.

• Apple Watch Series 11 starting price: $399.
• Apple Watch Ultra 3 added satellite connectivity at the ultra-premium tier.
• Apple Watch SE 3 served first-time buyers and family setup users at the entry tier.
• Premium-tier preference rose enough for Counterpoint to call it out as a primary 2025 driver.
• Garmin’s $2.36 billion fitness segment sits structurally in the premium and ultra-premium endurance lanes.

Source: Apple product pages; Counterpoint Research insights, Q4 2025

Smartwatch Use Cases and Daily Behavior

Health and fitness tracking remains the dominant use case for smartwatches. Industry surveys consistently place fitness tracking as the single most-cited reason for purchase since 2020, while health-monitoring feature engagement is significantly higher because most owners use multiple features simultaneously (heart rate, sleep, activity rings).

• Fitness tracking is the most cited single purchase reason since 2020.
• Heart-rate monitoring is near-universal across modern smartwatches in 2025, with health-data integration patterns mirrored in Microsoft 365 statistics for enterprise health-tracking adoption.
• Sleep tracking adoption rose with Series 11’s new sleep score feature launched in September 2025.
• ECG and AF detection moved from novelty to peer-reviewed accuracy in January 2025 with a sensitivity of 94.8% per JACC: Advances.
• Hypertension alerts arrived as a new use case in Series 11 in September 2025.

Source: Industry surveys 2025; Apple Newsroom September 2025

Smartwatch Market Forecasts

IDC’s most recent forecast projects continued growth across the wrist-worn device category through 2027, with the 2025 inflection cited as evidence that the category exited its 2024 trough. Counterpoint similarly projected Counterpoint forecasted approximately 7% year-over-year growth for 2025 and pointed to portfolio refreshes, premium-tier preference, and HarmonyOS expansion as forward drivers.

• IDC: 2025 inflection signals a return to multi-year growth.
• Counterpoint: 2025 portfolio refreshes are the most important single catalyst.
• Garmin’s 2026 revenue guidance projects approximately $7.9 billion in consolidated revenue, implying fitness-led acceleration continues.
• Premium-tier price points are likely to keep expanding feature surface (hypertension, sleep score, satellite).
• China subsidy effects on shipments will likely normalize through 2026 as comparison bases reset.

Source: IDC Quarterly Tracker; Counterpoint Research; Garmin 8-K filings

What percentage of people have a smart watch?

Roughly one in four adults in mature markets owns a smartwatch, with the United States and the United Kingdom both tracking near that level per industry surveys. IDC reported that Q1 2025 smartwatch growth was driven in part by a strong recovery in key regions such as Western Europe, the United States, Latin America, and the Asia/Pacific (excluding India). China’s subsidy-driven surge added 17.6 million Q1 2025 units alone, pulling overall global penetration higher than 2024’s plateau levels.

Are smartwatch sales declining?

Smartwatch sales are not declining in 2025. Counterpoint Research data shows the category grew approximately 4% year over year in 2025 after declining about 7% in 2024, the first annual contraction in the category’s history. IDC’s Q1 2025 reading showed smartwatch shipments at 34.8 million units, up 4.8% year on year. Apple’s own shipments grew 8% in 2025, ending a seven-quarter decline streak.

Can smartwatches detect atrial fibrillation?

A peer-reviewed systematic review and meta-analysis published in JACC: Advances on January 9, 2025, found Apple Watch ECG sensitivity of 94.8% (95% CI: 91.7% to 96.8%) and specificity of 95% (95% CI: 88.6% to 97.8%) for atrial fibrillation detection across 4,241 participants in 11 studies. The authors concluded that the Apple Watch provides a convenient diagnostic option for patients, while emphasizing that the device complements rather than replaces a standard 12-lead ECG. Smartwatches help flag possible AF episodes; final diagnosis remains a clinical decision.

Conclusion

Smartwatch shipments returned to growth in 2025, with the category expanding approximately 4% year over year and Apple Watch, the single most-shipped smartwatch brand, adding 8% YoY for its first growth year since 2022. Counterpoint pegs Apple at 23% of unit share, Huawei at 17%, and Xiaomi at 9%, while IDC’s tracker shows 120 million smartwatches shipped through the first three quarters of 2025.

The bigger structural story is that smartwatches now sit at the intersection of three durable trends: peer-reviewed clinical accuracy that gives ECG and AF detection real diagnostic credibility (validated against cybersecurity threat data and other consumer-tech standards for safety claims), new health features (hypertension, sleep score) that reset the consumer-facing feature axis, and a China policy lever that proved how quickly a single market can pull the global category. For this year, expect competitors to chase Series 11’s health-feature surface while Garmin’s fitness segment compounds at premium price points, and watch China’s subsidy comparisons for the next inflection signal.