Galaxy Watch Ultra may have a paint peeling problem

A Reddit user who goes by bimmerb0ii claims that the paint on his Galaxy Watch Ultra has chipped away after only days of use. According to the post, they got the watch on July 19 and kept it on their wrist until July 24 to charge up the battery. It wasn’t until yesterday that they saw some of the paint missing, which you can see in the image below, right above the bottom left screw.

The Reddit user alleges that they “babied” the device. They also say that they did not go to the gym or play any sports during the time the smartwatch was on their wrist.

Given the information, it doesn’t sound as if the user did anything that should have resulted in the paint peeling off. Additionally, they say that they reached out to customer support and had success in getting support to agree to replace the device, but not before having to jump through a number of hurdles first.

It’s unclear as to why the paint would peel off after only a few days of use. However, one commenter on the thread suggests that the reason the paint chipped off is because it may be physical vapor deposition (PVD) coated.

It’s possible this issue may be limited to the gray Galaxy Watch Ultra. Another commenter points out that the white and silver colorways only appear to have paint on the bezel and partly on the sides.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra has taken the spot of Samsung’s top-of-the-line smartwatch. With its premium price, you would also expect it to have a premium build that lasts, so this development is concerning. To be fair, this is just one report and we don’t know how widespread this issue is.

We have reached out to Samsung for comment. If we get a response, we will update this article accordingly.