Samsung pulled copycat Galaxy Watch faces years ago, but the outrageous bill came knocking anyway

Swatch is demanding $170 million from Samsung over digital watch face clones of luxury brands like Omega and Tissot on the Galaxy Store. The custom faces on a Galaxy Watch 8 or an Apple Watch are usually harmless fun, but a London court found Samsung liable for trademark infringement in 2022.

Closing arguments just wrapped, so the only question left is the payout.

Samsung made $300, Swatch wants $170 million back

Samsung says it earned about $300 in commissions from these apps, and Swatch wants $170 million. That gap is the whole fight.

We first covered this dispute in 2019, when Swatch spotted third-party developers uploading dials copying the logos and layouts of Omega, Tissot and Longines. Those apps were downloaded around 160,000 times across the UK and the EU.

According to Reuters, which reviewed the June 19 filing, Swatch values its claim at the licensing fees it says Samsung should have paid to use 10 of its brand assets.



Closing arguments wrapped last Friday (June 26), so a ruling now rests with the court.

This reaches well past the Galaxy Store

For anyone wearing a Galaxy Watch today, nothing changes. Samsung pulled the offending apps from the Galaxy Store when the controversy started, so the faces at the center of this case are long gone.



The bigger story is what this means for any company running an app store. A court already decided Samsung can be liable for infringement by outside developers on its platform, not just designs it made itself.

If you are on an Apple Watch or a Pixel Watch, this suit does not touch your faces, since it targets the Galaxy Store. Still, the precedent could reach any marketplace, Apple and Google included, the next time a luxury brand says its dials were copied.

The case predates the UK's EU exit, so the ruling reaches all 27 member states, and a parallel Swatch claim is already waiting in the US.

Who actually needs to worry

The faces in question vanished from the Galaxy Store years ago, and the official catalog and licensed designs are unaffected.

However, the ones watching closely are developers and platform owners. A large payout would tell every marketplace that hosting someone else's brand-infringing design can get expensive, which may quietly shrink the pool of bold lookalike faces that make customizing one of the best smartwatches fun.

The number looks wild, the reasoning less so

I will say it plainly, $170 million over a $300 profit looks wildly out of proportion at first glance. But Swatch was never really chasing that $300.

The fight is over what a proper license would have cost, and for a company built on scarcity and exclusivity, I get why it guards those dials so closely. Whether the judge agrees the number matches the harm is the part I am waiting on, since it will shape how platforms treat lookalike designs for years.

Either way, I would love a world where we can make our watches feel personal without a luxury house lawyering up over it.

• Our full verdict on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic and its rotating bezel
• How the Classic stacks up against the Galaxy Watch Ultra
• Follow me, @jojothetechie on X and Threads, for more hot takes and behind-the-scenes coverage

Gaming console PS5 Slim Digital edition flash sale! Limited time offer!

$644 ⁹⁹

$684 ⁹⁹

$40 off (6%)

Save $40 on PlayStation 5 Slim Digital edition from Back Market. Discount automatically applied at checkout. Offer ends 28 June 2026 at 23:59.

Get at Back Market