The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 showcase wasn’t just all about its latest smartphones and foldables, as the South Korean electronics giant also made room to announce the latest additions to its wearable lineup, the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, both featuring small but notable upgrades alongside the newly updated One UI 9 operating system.

Retaining the circle-on-a-square design of its predecessor, the Galaxy Watch 9 is powered by the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform and comes in two sizes. The base 40mm weighs 31.5 grams — slightly heavier than before — and is equipped with a 1.34-inch Super AMOLED display (438 x 438 resolution), while its 44mm counterpart sits at 34 grams and has a 1.47-inch watch face (480 x 480). Both boast 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage, with peak brightness bumped up to 3,000 nits. Battery capacity has also been upgraded, coming in at 390mAh, a 40 percent increase over the last generation, and 445mAh, respectively.

With a sustained focus on user wellness and health, the Galaxy Watch 9 features guidance tools that detect early warning signs in five key areas: heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen. Alongside Sleep Apnea 2.0, which delivers deeper insights into breathing disruptions during sleep, other new capabilities include Vitals, Heart Score, Daily Cardio Load, Fitness Index, and Hearing. Additionally, the integration of Gemini on Watch allows for a personalised AI experience on the wrist, and Raise to Talk eliminates the need to press a button or use voice commands such as “Hey Google” to activate Bixby or Gemini.

As the beefier sibling, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also offers a much bigger step up from its predecessor with the family’s largest battery and brightest display to date. It packs an 800mAh battery, a 53 percent increase from before, and up to 5,000 nits of brightness into a 61.5-gram chassis, powered by the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform. The 47mm display measures 1.52 inches and delivers Super AMOLED resolution of 498 x 498, and despite the 12 percent slimmer design, still retains its shock-resistant titanium casing.

To support a user’s active lifestyle, the smartwatch features dedicated tracking modes for outdoor enthusiasts, starting with Trail Run, which tracks detailed elevation, climbing progress, and terrain impact for better pacing and reduced injury risks, and Nutrition Alert, which provides real-time hydration guidance. It also introduces real-time diving data, including depth, time, and water temperature, as well as advanced features like ascent/descent speed tracking and safe dive limits, that can be accessed through the exclusive Ultra 2 Diving app, expected to be available later this year.

Both models will ship with Samsung’s One UI Watch 9 out of the box, bringing a host of new features and quality-of-life updates. Users can now further tweak the design of their watch face with Portrait image options, auto framing, and background blurring, while Cycling Data monitors power, cadence, and speed. A new Compass feature pins and tracks waypoints, and new customisable Action Buttons can now be split into Workout and Utility Control.

Launching in Singapore on 14 August, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2 come in the following colour options: Graphite and Cream (40mm) / Graphite and Silver (44mm), and Titanium Grey and Titanium Silver, respectively. Pre-orders are now open, with the base Watch 9 retailing for S$518 (S$618 for LTE connectivity), and the 44mm iteration priced at S$568 / S$668. In comparison, the Ultra 2 will set users back by S$988.

Product images were shot using a Sony α7 IV Full-Frame Hybrid Camera equipped with the 28-70mm F2 GM lens.