By all leaks and accounts, Samsung has pushed its upcoming wearable device portfolio outside the comfort zone. The company will soon bring drastic redesigns to its Galaxy earbuds and smartwatch lineups – not to mention it will introduce a brand new wearable category through the Galaxy Ring.
This new era of wearable Galaxy devices is driven by ex-Mercedes designer Hubert H. Lee, who now leads the Samsung MX (Mobile eXperience) Design Team. Undoubtedly, these upcoming devices promote bold designs with stylish yet sporty characteristics, and they're unlike anything we've seen before from Samsung.
The upcoming Buds 3 are a good example. As @UniverseIce puts it in one of his recent posts on X, the wireless earbuds look “very Cyberpunk” and somehow reminiscent of the signature tail light for the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS model Hubert Lee designed.
A new chapter for Samsung's Galaxy wearables
Hubert H. Lee, who at one point was the Chief Design Officer at Mercedes-Benz China, joined Samsung in December 2022. Upon joining, Samsung said Lee's expertise will help bring a new look and feel to Galaxy products.
That new look didn't come in 2023. As we all know, Samsung played the game relatively safely last year when it released the Galaxy Buds FE and the Galaxy Watch 6 series.
It's unclear if the 2023 wearables were designed by Hubert H. Lee, but regardless, they followed established design formulas rather than trying something bold and new. It is possible that the design of the 2023 wearables may have already been locked in when Hubert H. Lee joined Samsung in December 2022 or that he played it safe during his first year at Samsung.
Regardless, the ex-Mercedes designer's work is now truly starting to shine through Samsung's product portfolio.
The upcoming Galaxy Watch Ultra, seen in the leaked renders above, has a very different design than Samsung's previous models, combining a square form factor with a circular screen.
It is polarizing, based on the reaction of many people online, but it is nothing if not bold. And it might be a sort of acquired taste that grows on people with time to become something beloved.
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Likewise, according to leaks, the Galaxy Buds 3 / Buds 3 Pro wireless earbuds completely differ from what we got before. They leave behind the “Buds” design and adopt a traditional stem.
They, too, have a sporty yet elegant design, and more than that, they are reportedly equipped with a so-called “Blade Light” LED light strip that shines in certain scenarios. That's the main element that may give them a Cyberpunk-like vibe.
These upcoming Galaxy products that are about to hit the stage at Unpacked on July 10 are anything but ordinary.
Change can be scary, but it can lead to positive growth. It's been years since we've seen any notable changes in Samsung's wearable device portfolio, and perhaps Galaxy wearables weren't in a mature enough place to keep playing it safe — unlike Samsung's flagship phones, which have matured over more than a decade. A breath of fresh air for Galaxy wearables might do Samsung good.
