Samsung unveils the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2, moving from its Exynos chips to the Snapdragon Wear Elite and hiking prices by $30 to $380 and $50 to $700
It's a year of refinement for the Galaxy Watch. With the new Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, which are being announced today …
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung’s watch line has moved steadily upmarket: the 2024 Watch7 and Ultra launched at $300 and $650, while the 2025 range introduced a $349 Watch 8 alongside a $499 Classic. The new pricing extends that premium ladder rather than resetting it.
The more consequential break is architectural. Samsung’s prior flagship pair used its 3nm Exynos W1000 wearable chip, making the move to Snapdragon Wear Elite a change in the company’s component strategy, not merely another annual refresh.
First-order effects
- Galaxy Watch 9 buyers now enter at $380, while the Ultra 2 starts at $700; Samsung is raising the price ceiling on both its mainstream and flagship watch tiers.
- Samsung replaces Exynos in its newest watches with Snapdragon Wear Elite, removing its in-house wearable silicon from this generation’s flagship products.
Second-order effects
- The Snapdragon Wear platform gains a prominent Samsung flagship deployment, while Samsung’s Exynos wearable effort loses a near-term showcase device.
- The higher price points sharpen the gap between Samsung’s premium watches and its lower-cost Watch FE line, which previously started at $199 in the single-size Watch FE launch.
Third-order effects
- If Samsung maintains this sourcing shift, smartwatch differentiation may rely less on proprietary watch silicon and more on software, sensors, industrial design, and platform-level features.
- The lineup also points to continued premiumization: annual refinements can support higher flagship price bands, but demand will determine whether that pricing becomes durable across the category.
The trend: Samsung’s update is part of a broader smartwatch shift toward premium segmentation and greater reliance on specialized merchant silicon for flagship devices.