One UI Watch 5 update is live for the Galaxy Watch 5 in Europe

Samsung started rolling out the stable One UI 5 Watch update last week. The update, which confusingly enough is also referred to as One UI Watch 5 in some of the company's material and announcements, debuted in South Korea. Now, it's available in Europe!

The One UI Watch 5 update is now available for the Galaxy Watch 5 series across Europe. More specifically, it's rolling out for the Bluetooth models. The update carries firmware version R9xxXXU1BWH3 and weighs around 1.7GB — at least for the standard Galaxy Watch 5.

The update is not yet available for the LTE Galaxy Watch 5 variants, and it's missing from the Galaxy Watch 4 lineup (Bluetooth or LTE). But we suspect that Samsung will address this soon and go for a more widespread release across Europe and other markets.

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A feature-rich update with lots of improvements

One UI Watch 5 adds a new way to browse through watch faces and tiles. It implements a vertical layout. And Galaxy Watch users can now check the battery level of all their devices through the new Battery tile. And speaking of tiles, the Buds controller tile has been improved with 360 audio controls. Furthermore, users can now start timers from the new Timer tile without opening the Timer app.

As for other general UI improvements, One UI Watch 5 lets users set an album or story as their watch faces.

Samsung Health comes with enhanced on-device sleep coaching, better workouts, and personalized heart rate zones and guidance. Users can also create their own exercises now.

This is but a taste of One UI Watch 5, so check out the screenshots below for the official changelog.

If you own the Galaxy Watch 5 in Europe, you should now be able to download and install the One UI Watch 5 update through the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app. Open it, go to your Galaxy Watch homepage, access “Watch settings,” and tap “Watch software update.” You can also try these steps if you own the Galaxy Watch 4, but again, as of this writing, the firmware is limited to the 2022 smartwatch series.

If you want to buy a Galaxy Watch 5, you still can. In fact, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is still very much relevant in 2023, even after the Galaxy Watch 6 series' release, thanks to its incredible battery life, exclusive exercise tracking features, and use of exotic materials.