Three days before Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked, a full set of official-looking marketing renders for the Galaxy Watch9 has leaked. Veteran leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks) sent the images to subscribers of his evleaks Substack on July 18, 2026, in a post titled “Fresh9.” To be clear up front: these are pre-release, unpublished Samsung marketing renders, not an official Samsung announcement. Nothing here is confirmed by Samsung, and everything below should be read as a leak until the company says otherwise.
Odd detail worth a line: the public Substack post appears to have been pulled and now 404s. The renders survived only because Substack baked them straight into the email that went out to subscribers.
Galaxy Watch9 renders show “Snapdragon Wear Elite” branding for the first time
The headline item is a naming reveal, not a hardware reveal. A separate specs leak on July 14 already reported that Samsung is moving the Galaxy Watch9 from its own Exynos silicon to a Qualcomm chip. What Blass’s drop adds is the first look at how Samsung intends to market that switch: one render carries an official-style “Powered by Snapdragon Wear Elite” badge over an exploded view of the watch’s internal module and shielding stack. So the chip change itself isn’t new news; the branded, retail-facing name for it is.
That same July 14 strand also floated an on-device AI/NPU angle and a possible price increase for this generation. Neither is part of Blass’s leak, and neither is confirmed — treat them as unproven claims for now. A faster chip is welcome, but “AI on your wrist” is a marketing line until we see what it actually does day to day, and a price bump would be a real cost to weigh against it.
Four colorways in one lineup shot
A separate render lines up four Galaxy Watch9 finishes, all with silver-toned bezels and buttons: a white/silver, a graphite dark-gray, a green, and a black. Some outlets have reported these as “Cream, Graphite, Green, and Silver,” but those names are not officially confirmed, and at least one report suggested the color options may vary by case size. Take the marketing names with a grain of salt; the four finishes above are simply what the leaked image shows. A separate title card in the batch confirms the product name “Galaxy Watch9,” and there’s a standalone black model shown with an analog face.
The health features are carryover, not new tricks
Several renders show on-watch software, and it’s worth being plain about what this is: the existing Galaxy Watch health suite carried over to the new model, not a fresh feature set. The callouts include an Energy Score reading (95, “Excellent”) paired with a sleep summary, a “Vitals — 2 out of range” screen with heart-rate, ECG, blood-oxygen and skin-temperature tiles, a structured run-pace training screen with a zone progress bar, and a sleep apnea notification card. Anyone using a recent Galaxy Watch already has all of this — the renders aren’t especially revealing beyond confirming what was already expected.
The honest read for current owners: this leak points to new branding and a new color lineup, not a health-tracking leap. If your reason to upgrade is better fitness data, there’s nothing here yet to justify it.
When does this get confirmed?
Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked is set for July 22, 2026, where the Galaxy Watch9 is expected alongside the rest of the lineup — the same event tied to the recently leaked Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, which also came out of the Blass leak wave. That’s the moment the Snapdragon Wear Elite branding, the color names, and any price changes either hold up or fall apart. Until then, this stays firmly in leak territory.
