Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch FE are now getting Wear OS 5 updates

Ben Schoon | Dec 3 2024 - 7:40 am PT

Following the Watch 6 last month, Samsung is now bringing its One UI 6 Watch update, with Wear OS 5, to the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch FE.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch lineup went months without any updates this year while the company was working on its next big update to Wear OS 5. The One UI 6 Watch update brings some new features, some design tweaks, and more to the Galaxy Watch series, but it was only available on select devices to start. The Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra have been running the update since July, but older generations were left waiting on Wear OS 4.

Now, that’s changing.

Over the past few hours Samsung has rapidly been expanding the rollout of Wear OS 5 to the Galaxy Watch 5. Users report getting the update on Bluetooth variants of the Watch 5 in countries throughout Europe, as spotted by multiple users on Reddit. The update is also available to Watch 5 Pro in Malaysia as one user found. Interestingly, the update still isn’t available to Watch 6 variants in some of these regions, despite expanding to Watch 6 units in the US and other regions last month.

But it’s not just the Galaxy Watch 5. Samsung is also rolling out Wear OS 5 to the Galaxy Watch FE.

While the rollout appears limited to Europe, One UI 6 Watch has started rolling out to Samsung’s budget-focused Galaxy Watch FE in some regions as users have reported. The Galaxy Watch FE launched earlier this year as a $199 option in Samsung’s lineup, offering a much more affordable way to get into Samsung’s smartwatches. This was accomplished by essentially re-branding the Galaxy Watch 4 with some minor updates. Oddly enough, though, the Galaxy Watch 4 hasn’t started getting this same update widely yet, though GSMArena did cite some user reports of the update being available in Korea.

Have you installed One UI 6 Watch on your Galaxy Watch? Let us know in the comments below.