On Every Wrist

For a while the wearables boom looked spent; global shipments of wrist-worn devices actually dipped in 2024. But that global figure hid a divergence: while the rest of the world plateaued, China surged. Chinese shipments rose about 20% over the first three quarters of 2024 even as the global market slipped 1%, making China the largest wrist-worn device market on earth.^[1]

The momentum carried into 2025. China’s market grew again by roughly a third, driven by a striking rebound in low-cost fitness bands as well as smartwatches, and IDC projected the country toward nearly 60 million units for the year.^[2] The engine of the global wearables market is now, unmistakably, Chinese demand.

The world stopped buying more smartwatches. China didn’t, and the brand outselling Apple now speaks Mandarin.

Huawei takes the crown

The vendor tables tell the sharper story. In the first quarter of 2025, Huawei overtook Apple to become the world’s number-one wearables brand, a position it held for consecutive quarters, with Xiaomi close behind in third.^[4] A year earlier Huawei had already reached about 20% of the global market on the strength of its Watch Fit line, its shipments growing more than 50% year on year while it out-shipped both Apple and Samsung.^[3]

One honest caveat. The precise per-vendor percentages come from specific quarters and move around, so they should be cited with their dates rather than treated as fixed; the health-sensor features these devices tout are real but were not itemised in the shipment data, so they belong in the story in general terms.

What it means for capital

Wearables show China completing a transition it has made in category after category: from the cheap-volume supplier to the brand that leads the world. Huawei outshipping Apple in smartwatches is not a low-cost story; it is a premium, feature-rich product winning on its merits, powered by the largest and fastest-growing home market anywhere. For investors the signal is the direction of travel: Chinese consumer-hardware brands are increasingly competing at the top of their categories, not the bottom, and doing it from a domestic base that keeps expanding while Western markets stall. The wrist is won; the pattern is the point.