Samsung Galaxy Watch redesign may be aimed squarely at Apple Watch

Madeline Ricchiuto

Thu, March 14, 2024 at 5:00 PM UTC

After a decade of roundness, the Samsung Galaxy Watch may return to a square design for the new models. We last saw square Samsung smartwatches back in the days of the Galaxy Gear, Gear 2, and Gear Live. In case you don't mark your calendar by smartwatch releases, that means it's been just under a decade since the last of those watches went on sale in June 2014.

Samsung switched to its now-signature round design for the Galaxy Gear 2S and hasn't looked back. At least, until now according to a recent report from Sammobile .

Square Galaxy Watch – what we know so far

Sammobile's report indicates that Samsung is looking into a square design for future Galaxy watches, but it doesn't indicate which watches if any are trading their curves for flat angles.

The change could come with the upcoming Galaxy Watch 7 series, or could come with later iterations of the Galaxy watch. The idea is "enthusiastically being considered internally and it's very much on the cards that the switch is going to happen," according to Sammobile's source.

However, with any idea in the concept stage, the square design could be ditched once again before the square watches ever see the light of day.

Square Galaxy Watch – what we'd like to see

Square watch face designs have been popular for centuries, but when it comes to smartwatches, that's a design we don't see as often. The Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, Garmin's entire line of smartwatches, and many others are circular. Which makes the Squircle-shaped Apple Watch instantly recognizable.

While I prefer a rectangular, tank-style smartwatch for the future Galaxy Watches, Samsung attempted a thin rectangular Fitbit-style smartwatch with the Gear Fit and Gear Fit2 back in 2015 and 2016. Something a bit less oblong would be ideal. But a more squared shape like the original Galaxy Gear would also be a nice change from the current line of Galaxy smartwatches.

In terms of tech, we would expect to see the standard bluetooth and cellular connectivity options, as well as health and fitness tracking features like a heart rate monitor, fall detection, and sleep tracking. Some degree of waterproofing would also be necessary, but it doesn't seem likely Samsung would try to match the Apple Watch Ultra 2's 50-meter depth rating. The Galaxy Watch6 went for an IP68 rating, which feels necessary for a smartwatch, so we'd want to see that continue with the square-designed watches.

Square Galaxy Watch – what we know so far

Square Galaxy Watch – what we'd like to see

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