Adolescent peer relationships, essential for their development, are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. As this trend continues, wearable devices, especially smartwatches tailored for adolescents, are reshaping their socialization. In China, smartwatches like XTC have gained wide popularity, introducing unique features such as "Bump-to-Connect" and exclusive social platforms. Nonetheless, how these devices influence adolescents' peer experience remains unknown. Addressing this, we interviewed 18 Chinese adolescents (age: 11 -- 16), discovering a smartwatch-mediated social ecosystem. Our findings highlight the ice-breaking role of smartwatches in friendship initiation and their use for secret messaging with local peers. Within the online smartwatch community, peer status is determined by likes and visibility, leading to diverse pursuit activities (i.e., chu guanxi, jiazu, kuolie) and negative social dynamics. We discuss the core affordances of smartwatches and Chinese cultural factors that influence adolescent social behavior and offer implications for designing future wearables that responsibly and safely support adolescent socialization.

翻译：青少年同伴关系对其发展至关重要，并且日益受到数字技术的中介影响。随着这一趋势的持续，可穿戴设备，特别是为青少年定制的智能手表，正在重塑他们的社交方式。在中国，像XTC这样的智能手表广受欢迎，引入了诸如“碰一碰加好友”和专属社交平台等独特功能。然而，这些设备如何影响青少年的同伴体验仍不清楚。为此，我们访谈了18名中国青少年（年龄：11-16岁），发现了一个由智能手表中介的社交生态系统。我们的研究结果强调了智能手表在友谊建立中的破冰作用，以及它们被用于与本地同伴进行秘密通信。在智能手表在线社群中，同伴地位由点赞数和可见度决定，导致了多样化的追求活动（即“处关系”、“家族”、“扩列”）以及负面的社交动态。我们讨论了智能手表的核心可供性以及影响青少年社交行为的中国文化因素，并为设计未来能够负责任且安全地支持青少年社交的可穿戴设备提供了启示。