A surprising name replaces Apple at the top of the wrist-worn wearables market
When the Apple Watch was released in April 2015 it took a little time for the device to find its place in the world. Apple at first positioned the device as jewelry and models wearing the timepiece were seen on the covers of glossy magazines like Vogue China. But eventually, as word started spreading that the health features on the Apple Watch saved the lives of several users, Apple pulled the watch from jewelry pop-up stores and promoted the device as a lifesaver.
By the fourth quarter of 2015, for the first time ever, the number of smartwatches shipped over a three-month quarter exceeded the number of Swiss watches delivered during the same time period. By September 2017, the Apple Watch was the most popular timepiece in the world and the top-selling smartwatch. That means sales of the Apple Watch surpassed revenue generated by watches made by famous names such as Rolex, Fossil, Omega, Seiko, Patek Philippe, and Casio.
Apple is no longer the world's top wrist-worn wearables brand
For a long time Apple has been the top brand of wrist-worn wearable devices based on shipments. Now, according to IDC, Apple has been replaced at the top of IDC's Worldwide Wearables Quarterly Tracker by a company you will be surprised to see as number one. This surprising company delivered 23.6 million wrist-worn wearable units during the first three quarters of 2024 for a stunning 44.2% year-over-year gain.
Huawei has replaced Apple as the world's top brand of wrist-worn wearables
What makes the world's leading wrist-worn wearables brand such a stunner is that this company has been severely sanctioned by the U.S. Of course, we are talking about Huawei. The company's strong smartwatch lineup helped it produce a strong year-over-year gain in shipments during 2024's first three quarters. Add that to Apple's 12.8% decline in shipments over the first three quarters of this year and Huawei comes out on top by shipping 1.1 million more wrist-worn wearable units than the 22.5 million that Apple delivered during the year-to-date
Apple did return to the top of the market during Q3 when it released the Apple Watch Series 10, but that doesn't take away from Huawei's performance during all three completed quarters this year. Among Huawei's top watches during the third quarter were the D2, the company's second-generation blood pressure measuring watch, and the GT5 and GT5 Pro timepieces.
In third place for the first three quarters of 2025 was Xiaomi thanks to the Xiaomi Band 9. The band had several upgrades this year including the improvement of the screen's brightness. Other upgrades were seen in the capacity of the band's battery capacity, and the addition of more sports health functions. The company shipped 20.5 million wrist-worn wearable units during the first three quarters of 2024 up 26.5% from the first three quarters of last year.
China is still the largest market for wrist-worn wearables
Samsung shipped 11.5 million watches during quarters one through three this year. That was up 24.3% on an annual basis and the new Galaxy Watch Ultra gives the company a high-end model to compete with the Apple Watch Ultra 2. In fifth place was BBK which produces mostly kids' watches in China, a niche where it is number one. During the first, second, and third quarters of this year, BBK delivered 7.8 million watches. That was a 25.9% year-over-year gain.
Overall, for the first three quarters of 2024, 139 million wrist-worn wearables have been shipped. That is a 1% or 1.5 million unit drop compared to the first three quarters of 2023. By the way, Huawei had the leading 16.9% market share for quarters one through three this year compared with 16.2% for Apple and 14.7% for Xiaomi.
China remains the largest market for wrist-worn wearables as 45.8 million units shipped during the first three quarters of the year, a healthy 20.1% year-over-year increase. The devices included in the Wearables Quarterly Tracker included smartwatches and wristband products. An example of the latter would be the Xiaomi Band 9.
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