With wearable shipments hitting 46.6 million, Xiaomi retakes the lead as the overall market jumps 13% YoY. Growing health features and booming demand in emerging markets promise hope.
The global wearable band market grew 13% year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2025, reaching 46.6 million units, according to research by Canalys, now part of Omdia. A rebound in demand and a low base from the same period in 2024 helped boost growth across all device categories: smartwatches, basic watches, and basic bands.
Xiaomi led global shipments for the first time since Q2 2021, with 8.7 million units and 44% annual growth. Strong sales of the Redmi Band 5 and a wider push into ecosystem integration through HyperOS supported this performance.
The report highlighted that Xiaomi’s value-focused strategy and effective pricing have driven success in emerging markets.
Apple followed with 7.6 million units shipped, up only 5% YoY. Despite modest growth, Apple retained second place, with expectations for a significant portfolio update in the second half of 2025. This will be marking the Apple Watch’s tenth anniversary.
Huawei secured third place with a 36% jump to 7.1 million units, thanks to solid demand for its GT and Fit series. It continues expanding its Huawei Health app outside China as part of a broader ecosystem push.
Samsung, at fourth, recorded the strongest growth among the top vendors, up 74% to 4.9 million units. Its strategy focused on expanding in emerging markets with basic bands while maintaining a premium presence in developed economies with smartwatches.
Garmin held fifth position with 1.8 million units, marking a 10% increase. The brand leveraged its specialist offering and launched Garmin Connect+ to deepen engagement with loyal users.
Vendors are increasingly shifting from hardware-driven models to service and platform ecosystems. With hardware margins tightening, brands like Oura and Whoop are leading a trend towards subscription-based services.
Cynthia Chen, Research Manager at Canalys, highlighted that consumers in Europe prioritise price, battery life, and health tracking. As software ecosystems mature, vendors capable of combining these essentials with deeper service offerings stand to gain.
“Many new features are difficult for consumers to evaluate, making it hard to differentiate brands and leaving many to default to selecting devices based on price and core functionality. But once market education improves and hardware penetration reaches a certain level, software and ecosystem integration can deliver greater added value, at which point vendors can demonstrate their advantages,” she said.
As competition intensifies, wearable makers are focusing on health, seamless integration, and ecosystem strength to drive future growth and customer retention.
