Wearables

In September Garmin launched its Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED smartwatch, the world's first with a microLED display. The panel is a 1.4" 454x454 round display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits, produced by AUO. The microLED version of the Fenix 8 Pro has much improved brightness, but carries a $700 premium, is thicker (the touch layer is not in-cell like in the OLED version) and also cuts the battery life down from 27 days to 10 days - which says a lot about the low power efficiency of the microLED display.

Tom's Guide posted a review of the new microLED watch, comparing it with the AMOLED version. Interestingly, the reviewer says that the microLED was a bigger update than he expected. The display is noticeably brighter than the AMOLED, has improved viewing angles - and curiously it is clearer, too. It seems the reviewer is especially enthusiastic about the viewing angles. When running with a smartwatch, this is apparently important.

In September Garmin launched its Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED smartwatch, the world's first with a microLED display. The panel is a 1.4" 454x454 round display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits, produced by AUO. This was an important moment in the history of the microLED industry. The microLED version of the Fenix 8 Pro carries a $700 premium, and also cuts the battery life down from 27 days to 10 days - which says a lot about the low power efficiency of the microLED display.

Tom's Guide posted an interesting interview with Garmin's Display Technology Manager, Ralph Polshak, that discusses the microLED project and Garmin's thoughts and plans.

UBI Research estimates that global microLED wearable display shipments will be around 300,000 units in 2025, and will grow to over 3 million units by 2030.

In terms of revenue, the market will expand from $160 million in 2025 to $1.2 billion by 2030.

Yesterday Garmin launched its Fenix 8 MicroLED smartwatch, the world's first with a microLED display. The panel is a 1.4" 454x454 round display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits. We assumed that AUO produces the display, and indeed the company confirms this today. 

This is an exciting moment for the microLED industry, and for AUO. This is not only This is the world's brightest wearable, and at 4,500 nits, quite a bit ahead of the brightest OLED (at 3,000 nits). However, a big question remains regarding the power consumption of the microLED display.

Following last year's rumors and leaks, Garmin officially launched its Fenix 8 MicroLED smartwatch, that utilizes a microLED display. This is the world's first commercial microLED wearable device (if you're not counting Konka's 2020 APHEA smartwatch, which was never commercially available). The Fenix 8 MicroLED costs $1,999 - or $700 more than the Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED watch.

The Fenix 8 MicroLED smartwatch has a 1.4” (35.56 mm) 454x454 round microLED display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits. This is the company's brightest smartwatch to date - and in fact is likely the world's brightest smartwatch - as the brightest AMOLED watch offers 3,000 nits.

During the K-Display 2025 conference, Samsung Display unveiled a new flexible wearable microLED display. This new panel offers a brightness of 6,000 nits, and a density of 326 PPI. 

Samsung says that this new display has 700,000 microLED chips, each 30 um in size. This means the resolution is likely to be 640×360. The size, in that case, will be about 2.25 inch diagonal, which is quite large for a smartwatch.

In January 2025, microLED developer VueReal launched reference design kits (RDKs) to enable product designers to buy microLED display samples and integrate into new designs. There were three different kits: monochrome microLED lighting panels, microLED microdisplays, and passive matrix and active matrix (LTPS) transparent microLED displays, ranging in size from 3.5-inch to 10-inch.

Now VueReal announced that it is expanding its RDK portfolio, with new industry-specific bundles (what they refer to as vertical RDKs). These new kits are specifically built for automotive and consumer electronics.

Samsung Display is demonstrating its first microLED wearable display prototype, at CES 2025. The company did not share many specifications, beyond saying that the brightness is 4,000 nits peak, which makes it brighter than the 3,000 nits Apple Watch OLED display.

Samsung started developing wearable microLED displays back in 2023, hoping that Samsung Electronics will release a first product by the end of 2025. This was delayed, but it is great to see SDC showing this display publicly for the first time.

Trendforce analysts say that microLED chip revenues is set to grow from around $27.5 million in 2023 to $489.5 million by 2028, driven by adoption of microLED displays in automotive and AR applications.

The industry still suffers from technology challenges and high production costs, which means that demand for microLED displays is weak. Trendforce actually reduced its previous estimation (just a few months ago, it estimated that sales will reach almost $580 million in 2028).

Earlier this month we reported about a mention of a possible microLED smartwatch in Garmin's Bluetooth connection software. Now Garmin watch face developers noticed the mention of the Fenix 8 MicroLED device in the list of compatible devices:

Garmin's Fenix 8 series is the company's high-end smartwatch series, that adopts the latest technology, so it could make sense for Garmin to adopt the first microLED display in that series.