For the last year, I've been wearing the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra fairly regularly, as it's one of the best Samsung smartwatches and my first foray into the world of smartwatches. But I couldn't help but wonder if there'd be any follow-up to this particular model.
Prior to the Unpacked Galaxy event expected for July, where Samsung would typically reveals its next generation of wearables, we've heard plenty of rumors about the Galaxy Watch 8 and the return of the Galaxy Watch Classic. A Galaxy Watch Ultra
What I wasn't seeing was leaks or news about a new edition of the Galaxy Watch Ultra — and that had me worried. Maybe the Ultra would be one and done — or at least infrequently updated — raising questions about whether Samsung's high-end watch would fade from the scene.
Thankfully, my fears have been quashed a bit thanks to a trio of leaked images from regular tipster Evan Blass, who shared photos of the Galaxy Watch 8, 8 Classic and what he labeled as the Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) — which you can see at the top of this article. You'll find the report in Blass' Substack newsletter.
At first glance, the 2025 Ultra doesn't look much different from the watch introduced in 2024. There are some smaller color adjustments like the notches in the bezel being orange rather than the white. The "titanium gray" colorway features orange notches. Additionally, the dark blue band, which looks slick, isn't an available color.
Currently, Samsung only offers bands in white, orange and black. I would love to see some more hues.
Now, to be clear this is potentially just a render, but Samsung does have history of changing up colorways between generations of devices.
As for the other devices, the 8 image looks much like the Galaxy Watch 7 and it appears Samsung is sticking to a biannual release for the Classic models since the last two were the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
What can we expect?
Unfortunately, beyond an image, no other information was provided in the leak. So we don't know if there will be any specific upgrades to the physical watch.
Most of the upgrades we expect to see are on the software side of things. The One UI 8 beta just arrived this week with three big upgrades for Galaxy Watches. These include run coaching, improved sleep tracking and antioxidant measurement.
The updated software should also provide new icons and deeper Google Gemini integration according to previous rumors.
We're hoping for blood glucose monitoring on board the new Galaxy Watches, which we thought would debut last year, but obviously did not. We're cautiously optimistic that it launches this year.
Samsung is expected to reveal its new smart watches alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 during its annual summer Galaxy Unpacked event in July, though a formal date has yet to be announced.
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