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Samsung kicked off Galaxy Unpacked 2026 in London today with two new smartwatches: the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and the Galaxy Watch9. Both go on pre-order immediately, with shelves getting stock from August 7. The Ultra2 starts at $699.99 in the US (£649 in the UK), while the Watch9 opens at $379.99 stateside (£349 for the 40mm Bluetooth model in Britain).
At the center of the hardware upgrades sits Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite, a 3nm processor the company says offers CPU performance up to five times greater than the previous generation, paired with a local AI engine that can handle models of up to two billion parameters entirely on the device, with no cloud processing required. That last part matters more than it might sound: your biometric data stays on your wrist rather than making a round trip to someone else’s server.
What the Ultra2 Is Actually Built For
The Ultra2’s reputation as a device built for demanding environments is backed by more than promotional claims. The watch carries a titanium casing, MIL-STD-810H certification, a 10 ATM water resistance rating, and EN13319 dive certification. Samsung partnered with Mares to build a dedicated Diving app, set to launch later this year, that begins monitoring depth, time underwater, and water temperature as soon as the device detects submersion. The feature will remain exclusive to Wear OS for two years.
Trail runners get their own dedicated mode, with real-time elevation data, climbing progress, and terrain impact metrics. A new Nutrition Alert feature layers onto the existing Sweat Loss tracker to give hydration guidance during activity – useful when you’re several miles from the nearest water source.
The battery has grown to 800mAh, a 35 percent boost compared to the first Ultra, all packed into a chassis that sheds 12 percent of its predecessor’s thickness. The Watch Ultra2’s 1.52-inch display reaches a maximum brightness of 5,000 nits, a figure Samsung uses to position it as the brightest smartwatch currently available. Whether you’re checking your heart rate at altitude or just squinting into afternoon sun, visibility has historically been a real problem on smartwatch displays.
The Watch9, by contrast, is the everyday companion in the pair. Its aluminum build keeps the 40mm version down to 31.5 grams, and the 3,000-nit display punches well above what most daily-wear watches offer. Battery capacity is 390mAh on the 40mm and 445mAh on the larger 44mm version.
AI Health Features That Span Both Watches
The more interesting development for most buyers isn’t the hardware – it’s what Samsung is doing with the data these sensors collect. Underpinning both devices is an identical set of AI-driven health features, all drawing on Samsung’s BioActive sensor array – a system that integrates optical bio-signal detection, electrical heart signal measurement, and bioelectrical impedance analysis.
Vitals tracks five health metrics during sleep – including heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen levels – and is designed to notify users only when their numbers stray significantly from their individual baseline, avoiding unnecessary alerts throughout the night. The Heart Health Score combines cardiovascular metrics, sleep data, stress indicators, and body composition measurements into one unified, easy-to-use figure. Daily Cardio Load optimizes training volume recommendations, while the Fitness Index combines VO2 Max and body composition data into an overall physical fitness picture.
“AI’s greatest potential lies in shifting healthcare from addressing issues after they arise to proactive care, helping people maintain wellness through continuous, personal monitoring,” said Annika Bizon, VP of Product and Marketing, Mobile Experience, Samsung UK & Ireland. “This is part of a wider cultural shift where people are prioritising their health and sleep, and Samsung’s vision is for everyone to be better informed with tailored, actionable insights.”
That vision has some institutional backing. Samsung and Massachusetts General Hospital launched a joint study in May 2026 to explore how Galaxy Watch data could help monitor patients undergoing GLP-1 treatment – which suggests Samsung is at least attempting to move these features closer to the clinical end of the spectrum, even if the current watch software carries the standard wellness-not-medical-advice disclaimers.
Both watches also ship with a Strava 60-day free trial and a two-month iFIT subscription, for users who want guided training alongside the raw biometric data.
Edge AI in wearables is growing fast – Counterpoint Research data shows shipments of Edge AI smartwatches grew 70 percent year-on-year in Q1 2026, with that segment expected to represent nearly a third of all smartwatch shipments by the end of the year. Apple still holds around 90 percent of that market. Samsung is making a direct play for the rest of it.
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