Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2 to Receive Five Years of Updates

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 at an Unpacked event in London, scheduling global availability for August 7.

Pre-orders opened immediately on July 22, with devices slated to hit retail shelves on August 7. Both of these are going to receive five major OS upgrades as well as five years of security updates, the company has now confirmed. They are going to be released on August 7 running Wear OS 7 and Samsung’s own One UI 9 Watch on top. Older Samsung Galaxy Watches were promised four major OS upgrades and four years of security updates, and the company hasn’t updated that promise.

Pricing Pressures and Hardware Refinement

For the second consecutive year, Samsung adjusted its pricing upward. Meanwhile, the premium Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 climbed to $699.99, up from $649.99 for the first-generation Ultra. The Ultra 2, now $50 more expensive at $699.99, gets a few key spec bumps. These adjustments place Samsung’s flagship wearables above competing devices like Google’s Pixel Watch 4, which starts at $349.99. However, Samsung undercuts rival Apple ecosystem alternatives, such as the $399 Apple Watch Series 11 and the $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3. The Watch 9 is offered in 40mm and 44mm configurations, with the larger model carrying a $30 premium, and both sizes available with optional LTE connectivity for an extra $50. The Ultra 2 comes in a single 47mm titanium build featuring built-in LTE by default.

Upgraded Processing and Extended Firmware Support

Beneath the familiar exterior casing, Samsung replaced its in-house Exynos chips with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite processor. This processor is designed to drive faster overall performance while handling demanding artificial intelligence workloads more efficiently. The watch now uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite processor for buttery-smooth performance. Alongside the hardware transition, Samsung confirmed that both new watch models will receive five major operating system upgrades and five years of security patches. Shipping with Wear OS 7 and Samsung’s One UI 9 Watch interface, the new devices are positioned to receive their final major OS update in 2031. Older generations remain limited to a four-upgrade policy. Previous Galaxy Watch models, beginning with the Galaxy Watch 4, followed a four-OS-upgrade policy, but they, too, enjoyed a five-year security patch window. As of now, it’s unclear whether any older models, such as the Galaxy Watch 8, Watch 8 Classic, or original Galaxy Watch Ultra, will retroactively benefit from this new five OS update policy.

Battery Capacity and Display Upgrades on the Ultra 2

While the Galaxy Watch 9 retains a familiar aesthetic—complete with its signature squircle aluminum case and identical physical dimensions to its predecessor—the Ultra 2 introduces more substantial structural modifications. The 47mm watch packs in an 800 mAh battery. The Galaxy Watch Ultra2 has a 1.52-inch Super AMOLED display with 498×498 resolution, 5,000-nit peak brightness, and a sapphire crystal on top. It’s powered by the Snapdragon Wear Elite SoC, paired with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The watch features a titanium frame, and it’s certified for IP68 and IP69K dust and water resistance, it’s MIL-STD-810H compliant, and is rated for diving up to 40m. It has an 800 mAh battery which charges wirelessly at 10W. Despite housing a much larger power source, the Ultra 2 case measures thinner at 10.7mm. Outdoor enthusiasts also gain a display capable of reaching 5,000 nits of peak brightness, protected by a sapphire crystal lens. Plus, it now has dedicated diving support, courtesy of Mares.

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Whether these software enhancements and efficiency gains from the new Qualcomm processor can offset modest battery gains in the smaller Watch 9 models remains the central question for daily users.