Wear OS’ biggest player drops market share in Q1 2019 as Huawei Watch GT makes smashing debut

Ben Schoon | May 2 2019 - 12:44 pm PT

The smartwatch market in 2019 is mainly the Apple Watch, with everyone else competing for scraps. While Apple’s popular wearable grew in market share year-over-year, the biggest player in Wear OS saw a loss. According to a new report, Fossil Group’s smartwatch efforts saw them lose share in the market.

Counterpoint Research explains in a new report that the Apple Watch now makes up a whopping 1 in 3 smartwatches sold. Between Q1 of 2018 and Q1 of 2019, the company saw a jump from 35.5% to 35.8%. That’s not a huge difference, but it shows solid growth, especially as fewer iPhones were sold in the same time period.

What’s sad to see in this report is that Fossil, the biggest player by far in the Wear OS market, dropped from 3.2% market share in 2018 to a measly 2.5% in Q1 of 2019. Not only does Fossil make the most Wear OS watches, but they also make some of the best currently available – Fossil Sport being a key example of that. This comes after a previous report revealed Wear OS making up less than 10% of the market as a whole.

Meanwhile, Samsung and Huawei both saw huge leaps over 2018. Samsung jumped from 7.2% of the market in 2018 to 11.1% in Q1 of 2019. Huawei also made a huge debut with its Huawei Watch GT. With that single watch, the company was able to eclipse Fossil’s market share and take up 2.8% of the market as a whole. Counterpoint explains:

Huawei’s market share jumped to 3% in Q1 2019 due to good traction for its latest Huawei Watch GT. The striking design, affordability, leveraging the growing ‘Huawei’ brand mindshare, and the smartphone user base is driving demand.