It might be time for an upgrade. There are several popular smartwatches that are going to reach end-of-life in 2026, from the Pixel Watch 2 to Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Pro, as well as a whole slew of Apple Watch models. These devices won't stop working, but they'll stop receiving new features and, in some cases, security patches.

Apple alone is dropping five models with a single watch OS update — an absolutely massive cut. Add in Google's three-year support window expiring and Samsung's Wear OS cutoffs for the Watch 5 lineup, and 2026 shapes up as a significant moment for smartwatch owners to take stock of where their device stands. The release of watch OS 27 is expected to happen sometime in mid-September 2026.

Apple usually releases major watch OS updates around the same time new iPhone and Apple Watch hardware launches in September. Watch OS 27 was initially announced in June and went through developer and public beta testing over the summer. According to Google's official support page, the Pixel Watch 2, which was released in October 2023, has a guaranteed software update window running until October 1, 2026.

That includes both Wear OS version updates and security patches. Once that date passes — and we're not that far from it — the Pixel Watch 2 will no longer receive either. Google offers an industry-leading seven years of support for its Pixel smartphones, but has yet to apply a similar policy for the Pixel Watch lineup.

Samsung's own approach to support is a bit different, splitting its commitment into two tiers. First of all, you get one timeline for Wear OS upgrades and another for security updates. In recent years, Samsung has offered four major OS upgrades and five years of security patches per device.