Galaxy Watch Owners Report Disturbing Marks On Wrists

Galaxy Watch owners have reported waking up with red marks on their wrists, and in some of the photos we've seen, the marks even look like they could be burns. One of the most recent reports from a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro owner who posted on Reddit about a burn-like mark they found on their wrist says that they charged their watch all the way to 100% before bed. However, by morning the watch was completely out of battery and wouldn't turn back on.

The Watch 5 Pro isn't the only model people have complained about, either. Other online threads show that the Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch 8, and even some Galaxy Watch Ultra models have been leaving the same kind of marks on users' wrists. (via Android Authority). In most of those photos, the marks are found right underneath where the sensors on the back of the watch rest against the skin, and some posting think that the watch may be getting so hot that it ends up burning them.

Considering how much Samsung pushes health tracking on its watches, these reports are troubling, especially since this isn't the first time that Samsung has had an issue with heat and batteries doing things they shouldn't. If you like to wear your Galaxy Watch to bed for sleep tracking, this could put a major dampner on how you use your Galaxy Watch's health-based features.

One thing to keep in mind here is that skin irritation can happen whenever you have something rubbing against your skin a lot, like a smartwatch. The red marks that people are seeing on their skin could in fact just be irritation caused by the watch rubbing against their wrist throughout the night. In fact, the American Academy of Dermatology says that itchy skin, a "burning or stinging" feeling, and even fluid-filled blisters are all symptoms of skin irritation, and that description seems to fit what some of these reports cover pretty well.

Samsung even notes on one of its support pages that skin irritation can occur from its watches. This can be caused by a number of things, including a build up of residue or sweat on the back of the watch, wearing your band too tight, and more. The company recommends users stop wearing their watch for a few days to see if symptoms decrease when they start to experience something like this.

That still doesn't really explain what happened with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, though, since that owner's watch went from a full charge to completely dead overnight. There are a number of things that can drain the battery of your smartwatch quickly, including leaving on the always-on display or having health features set to take readings all night. If you do plan on wearing your watch to sleep, then taking advantage of ways to increase battery life on your Samsung Galaxy Watch might be smart, as it could cut down on the amount of energy and heat being used.

It's also important to note that we have seen smartwatch burns turn into a much bigger problem before. In March 2022, Fitbit recalled 1.69 million Ionic smartwatches after 118 burn injuries because the battery inside the Ionic could overheat. That included 78 burn injuries in the U.S., two of them third-degree burns, with the other 40 reported outside the U.S. Fitbit did say at the time that those reports made up less than 0.01% of the watches it had sold, though.

In January 2025, almost three years after the recall, Fitbit agreed to pay a $12.25 million civil penalty for failing to immediately report the overheating problem to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Fitbit had been getting reports of the Ionic overheating since 2018, and put out a firmware update in 2020 to try to fix it. The CPSC says burn reports kept coming in even after that update, and it wasn't until March 2022 that Fitbit actually recalled the Ionic.

Apple has had to pay out over smartwatch batteries, too, though for different reasons. After a lawsuit claimed that batteries in the original Apple Watch through the Series 3 could swell, Apple agreed to a $20 million settlement, and early Apple Watch owners are eligible to get paid from a new lawsuit settlement as a result. So far we haven't seen any kind of public announcement form Samsung. However, if you do own a Galaxy Watch, it might not be a bad idea to keep a close eye on it and take it off if you ever notice any heat related issues.