Samsung has taken the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic off the list of devices it patches. The wearable section of Samsung’s security update page now starts at the Galaxy Watch 5. Both were on it a month ago. The August 2026 patch, which we covered as it reached Korea first, was the last software either watch will get.
That page is how Samsung retires a device. It lists every Galaxy still in line for firmware patches, sorted into monthly, quarterly and twice-yearly groups. Watches have their own quarterly group. There is no announcement. The model just disappears.
What you lose, and what you don’t
Nothing stops working. Your Watch 4 will still track your sleep, count your steps, buzz with notifications and run its watch faces. Apps still update through the Play Store.
What ends is the patching. A watch patch bundles flaws Google finds in Wear OS, the Google software the watch runs on, and flaws Samsung finds in One UI Watch, its own interface on top. Google publishes those flaws each month, once fixed. From here on, anything found in Wear OS gets fixed on every other Galaxy watch and stays open on yours.
So your Watch 4 is fine today and a little less safe every month after this. It pairs to your phone over Bluetooth, holds your heart rate and sleep history, and on LTE models has its own connection. Not an emergency. It does mean a flaw found in 2027 sits unfixed on your wrist.
Samsung gave it exactly what it promised
The Watch 4 went on sale on 27 August 2021 running Wear OS 3.0, Samsung’s first Wear OS watch after seven years on its own Tizen system. Samsung’s terms were four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security patches. It got both, ending on One UI 8 Watch and Wear OS 6, which reached Bluetooth models from late 2025 and LTE versions in early 2026. Nobody here was cut short.
The same chip is still getting updates
The Galaxy Watch FE, launched in June 2024 and still on sale, is a Watch 4 in a new case. Same Exynos W920 chip, same 1.2-inch 396×396 screen, same 247 mAh battery, same sensor. Sapphire glass, and one size where the Watch 4 came in two. That is the whole difference.
The Watch FE is on the quarterly patch list, and it is in line for One UI 9 Watch, the Wear OS 7 update Samsung says will reach compatible watches before the end of the year. Samsung did not drop the Watch 4 because its hardware could no longer cope. It dropped it because the five years were up. Worth knowing before you buy a discounted one.
The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro went on sale on 26 August 2022. On the same five-year run, they come off the list around August 2027. If you own a Watch 4, keep wearing it and keep the phone it pairs with patched, since that is where the watch’s data ends up. Check Samsung’s list before you buy the next one.
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