Wearables are a US$119bn market with no dedicated industry show and no standard global dataset of users

01 Gatherings: wearables lack an industry-level trade show

They appear instead at general consumer-electronics fairs: CES 2026 drew 4,100+ exhibitors and named no hall for wearables. In China the principal stages are hosted by the state, and the Canton Fair, with more than 32,000 exhibitors, opened its first smart-wearables zone in 2026.

4,100+ CES 2026 exhibitors

02 Crowdfunding: for a young brand, the campaign is the first trade show

One agency puts China’s share of the top 100 hardware campaigns of 2025 at nearly 70%. No platform publishes how many projects deliver, and a 2018 study found no more than 32% of technology projects on time.

70% Top 100 hardware campaigns of 2025, agency estimate

03 Market: US$119bn including earwear, with about US$40bn on the wrist alone

611.5m units shipped in 2025 and value has grown by about 4% a year since 2022; by 2036 the market could be worth US$180bn to US$410bn.

US$119bn All wearables including earwear, 2025

04 China: nearly 40% of global wrist-worn shipments, about 13% of market value

China took 38.6% of wrist-worn shipments in the first quarter of 2026 and 13.2% of market value in 2025. Growth rests on a purchase subsidy for watches and bands priced up to US$897 (6,000 yuan).

38.6% Wrist-worn shipments, first quarter of 2026

05 Health: users will pay for health features, but wearables in serious medical regulation still face high hurdles

Acceptance of wearables in serious medicine remains low: on the verifiable record, only a small number of wearable devices meet regulators’ standards.

Sources: Chapters of this report

Given how the industry has developed so far, the questions public sources cannot answer are the best summary of its present state

Exhibit 1 · Eight figures that public sources do not give, and what is published in their place · By chapter of this report

Figure sought What is published instead Chapter
Users worldwide National surveys that ask different questions: 37% in the United States, 30% in the EU, 27% in China Demand
Brand ranks six to ten, and annual shares after 2022 Quarterly top five for all wearables, and a top five on the wrist led by Xiaomi with 18% Supply
Who assembles wearables and who supplies components Company statements, and one display share: two Chinese panel makers with 26% of smartwatch OLED in late 2023 Supply
Wearable revenue of Apple Watch, Samsung and Huawei Totals for the segment that holds them Capital
Venture funding worldwide, by year Individual rounds, and totals for China Capital
Delivery rates on crowdfunding platforms A 2018 study: no more than 32% of technology projects on time Crowdfunding
Size of wearables zones at fairs Nothing published Gatherings
The division of spending between consumers, insurers and employers The rules on who may pay, and no amounts Demand

Sources: Chapters of this report

Foreword: after more than a decade, wearables remain at an early stage

“Wearables have been on the market for more than ten years, yet the industry is still at an early stage worldwide, which follows directly from what the products are and what buyers need them for. Two forces shape the decade ahead: the rapid development of AI is pressing large manufacturers to find where AI enters and leaves the physical world, and the economic environment has not yet stimulated demand enough to make a wearable a necessity. Within the next ten years, wearables, more precisely AI hardware, will have their period of rapid growth.”

Max Wang, October 2026

Sources for the figures on this page

About the full report

65 pages, PDF, English. The chapters are listed in this edition’s contents. Every figure is traceable to a public source listed in the appendix, and forecasts are labelled as such.