By Admin 
At first glance, the headline sounds backwards. If India’s smartwatch market was cooling, why did Apple Watch suddenly gain so much ground?
The answer is that the market was not moving in one direction. The lower end of the category was weakening, while the premium end was getting stronger. TechCrunch, citing Counterpoint, reported that India’s smartwatch shipments fell 30% year over year in 2024, but Apple Watch shipments rose 141% in the same period. The same report said the premium smartwatch segment grew 147%, with Apple taking 50% share of that tier.
That split says a lot about where the market is heading. India did not suddenly stop buying wearables. What changed was the kind of smartwatch people were willing to buy. A large part of the earlier boom had been driven by inexpensive devices from budget-heavy brands, but that wave started to fade as shoppers became more selective. At the same time, buyers who wanted better performance, better sensors, and a smoother overall experience began moving toward premium options like Apple Watch.
The broader market slowed because the budget segment ran out of steam
The easiest way to understand Apple Watch’s rise is to first look at why the rest of the market cooled.
According to IDC, India’s wearable device market declined for the first time in 2024, falling 11.3% year over year, while smartwatch shipments dropped 34.4%. TechCrunch also reported that the country shipped about 35 million smartwatches in 2024, down sharply from the year before. That is not a small correction. It shows that the category had moved past its easy-growth stage.
A big reason for that slowdown was saturation at the low end. For a while, India’s smartwatch market was flooded with affordable models that sold on price more than long-term value. That helped the category grow quickly, but it also created a market full of products that were easy to replace and hard to differentiate. Once the first wave of buyers had already picked one up, the next purchase was no longer automatic. People started asking whether they really needed another low-cost watch that felt similar to the last one.
There were also growing concerns around quality and usefulness. The LinkedIn market summary based on IDC notes points to issues like reduced consumer spending, limited new launches, and concerns around accuracy in parts of the segment. That matters because budget wearables can grow quickly when they feel new, but they lose momentum just as quickly if users begin to question how useful or reliable they really are.
Apple Watch benefited from premiumization, not just brand power
This is where the story shifts.
While the broader smartwatch category was slowing, India’s premium smartwatch segment was expanding fast. TechCrunch, again citing Counterpoint, said that premium smartwatch shipments in India jumped 147% in 2024 and that Apple captured half of that segment. That kind of growth points to a clear change in buyer behavior. Instead of chasing the cheapest device available, more people in the market were willing to pay for a better one.
That does not mean every smartwatch buyer suddenly became an Apple customer. It means the part of the market that still had momentum looked much more like Apple’s natural home. Premium buyers tend to care more about build quality, health tracking, integration with other devices, and the confidence that comes with a well-established product. Apple Watch fits that profile far better than a generic low-cost alternative.
In other words, Apple was not winning because the whole category was surging. It was winning because the category was maturing.
Better health features helped justify the upgrade
One of the biggest reasons users move upmarket in wearables is health and fitness tracking.
TechCrunch reported that more experienced users in India gradually moved toward advanced smartwatches for better health insights and stronger smartphone integration. That is an important point, because it suggests this was not just a status-driven purchase. For a growing number of buyers, the appeal was practical. A premium watch could do more, track more, and fit more smoothly into everyday use.
This fits with the wider wearables story as well. Broader market coverage from Apple World Today, based on ABI Research, says smartwatches continue to support wearables growth globally because of rising consumer interest in health tracking, wellness, and connected-device use. That does not answer the India question by itself, but it does reinforce the idea that advanced features are becoming more important to buyers as the category matures.
For Apple, that trend is especially helpful. Apple Watch is not sold as a cheap accessory. It is sold as a more capable device with stronger sensors, better software support, and deeper ties to the broader Apple ecosystem. In a market where consumers are becoming more selective, that kind of positioning becomes an advantage.
The iPhone effect also mattered
Another reason Apple Watch had room to grow in India is that Apple’s broader position in the country was improving.
TechCrunch noted that Apple entered India’s top-five smartphone vendors in Q4 2024 with a 10% market share. That matters because Apple Watch becomes much more attractive when the installed base of iPhone users is growing too. A watch built to work best inside one ecosystem naturally benefits when that ecosystem gets stronger.
This is one of the most important differences between Apple Watch and many lower-cost alternatives. A budget smartwatch is often bought as a standalone device. Apple Watch is more likely to be purchased as part of a broader device experience. As Apple gains more traction in India’s smartphone market, the watch has a larger audience that already understands the brand, already trusts the software, and is more likely to see value in a tightly connected wearable.
So the shipment surge was not happening in isolation. It was part of a wider premium-device story.
Specific models helped keep momentum strong
Product timing also played a role.
According to TechCrunch, the Apple Watch Series 10 was the best-selling model in India’s premium smartwatch segment in 2024, followed by the Apple Watch Series 9. That tells us the surge was not just coming from older discounted inventory. It shows active demand for Apple’s current lineup.
That matters because premium growth looks very different when it is driven by fresh products rather than clearance pricing. A successful current-generation lineup signals confidence in the category and in the brand. It also suggests that buyers were not simply drifting upward by accident. They were making a more deliberate choice in favor of premium devices.
Rivals were present, but Apple owned the strongest part of the market
The premium segment in India was not empty. Samsung and OnePlus were active there too. But TechCrunch reported that in 2024 Samsung held about 40% of the premium smartwatch market and OnePlus held about 4%, leaving Apple in the lead at 50%.
That lead matters because it shows Apple was not merely participating in the premium shift. It was defining it. The company captured the largest share of the exact segment that was still growing quickly while the rest of the market was under pressure. In a slowdown, that kind of positioning can matter more than raw shipment volume alone.
It also suggests that brand trust mattered more as the market matured. When consumers move away from impulse-priced gadgets and start spending more carefully, brands with a stronger reputation often gain an edge. Apple was well placed for that kind of reset.
The slowdown actually created the opportunity
There is a temptation to treat market slowdowns as bad news for everyone, but that is not always how it works.
Sometimes a slowdown clears out the weakest part of the market and leaves more room for stronger products. That seems to be what happened here. As low-cost smartwatch demand cooled and the market became more selective, Apple Watch benefited from a cleaner competitive environment and a more premium-minded buyer base.That is why the contradiction in the title is not really a contradiction at all. Apple Watch shipments surged in India because the broader smartwatch market slowed in a very specific way. The slowdown hit the low end hardest. The premium end moved in the opposite direction. And once the category started rewarding quality, ecosystem strength, and richer features over price-led volume, Apple was in exactly the right position to win.