Overview
- Counterpoint Research found Edge AI-capable smartwatches made up 25% of global shipments in the first quarter of 2026, a 70% year-over-year increase.
- Apple accounted for roughly 90% of those Edge AI-capable shipments in Q1 2026, giving it a commanding lead in the nascent on-device AI segment.
- Counterpoint counts a watch as Edge AI-capable only if it has an on-board neural engine or NPU and at least one feature runs inference on that chip.
- Health use cases are driving adoption with shipments of watches supporting blood pressure monitoring doubling and models offering sleep-apnea detection tripling year over year.
- New challengers are arriving as Huawei shipped the Kirin W80 in 2025, Qualcomm introduced Snapdragon Wear Elite in 2026, Google is reportedly developing a Tensor wearable chip, and software approaches like Ambiq on Arm Helium may bring cheaper on-device AI to more watches.