After years of chucking rebadged mobile chips into wearables, Qualcomm is cooking up a proper smartwatch processor, codenamed "Aspen" and going by the model number SW6100, which will likely launch as the Snapdragon Wear W6.

Unlike previous efforts, the Snapdragon Wear W6 is built from the ground up for wearables rather than being a warmed-over smartphone chip. Qualcomm appears to have accepted that wearables need proper kit, not leftovers.

The new chip gets a serious performance kick, housing one Cortex-A78 core and four Cortex-A55 cores, a big leap from the Snapdragon Wear W5's ageing Cortex-A53 quartet. Throw in LPDDR5X RAM support and you've got something future-proof.

TSMC is handling the fabrication, another sign Qualcomm isn't skimping this time. Given that Apple and Samsung use TSMC for their top-shelf silicon, it's not surprising Qualcomm is following suit.

In fact, the W6's CPU layout is similar to Samsung’s Exynos W1000, which also sports one Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55s. It seems both outfits reckon this setup hits the sweet spot for juggling battery life and performance on your wrist.

With the high-performance core on board, expect better UI responsiveness, slicker multitasking, and support for fancy features like always-on displays and health sensors, without completely murdering the battery.

The Snapdragon Wear W5 was shoved out in 2022, so this three-year gap falls neatly into Qualcomm’s refresh cycle. Wearable makers have been whining for more grunt to power their increasingly needy gadgets, and this chip might finally shut them up.

Rumour has it the official reveal will happen at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in September. That gives watchmakers time to strap it into something wearable by early 2026.

This bespoke design is Qualcomm’s quiet admission that mobile processors never really fit into tiny watches, and maybe they’ve sorted that. Better thermal performance, battery efficiency, and something that doesn’t lag like it's 2015.