Rumors, leaks, and what we all know

The Apple Watch was initially pitched as an formidable sequel to the iPhone. The unique launch was a mix of a futuristic communication gadget, a tiny app-based laptop, and a health instrument, but it surely wasn’t spectacularly nice at any of these abilities. Because of years of refinement and an entire revamp of watchOS, we now have the wearable we all know and love right this moment: a well being and health tracker that has deep integrations with Apple’s iPhone and subscription companies.

Not a foul change, all instructed, however a fairly dramatic discount in ambition when you think about how Apple imagined folks could be sending one another recordings of their coronary heart beat due to its smartwatch.

And but, regardless of that gradual streamlining, the Apple Watch’s look has remained remarkably consistent throughout the final decade — till 2024, that’s. If rumors and studies are to be believed, the Apple Watch Sequence 10 or “Apple Watch X” might be as dramatic a shift because the iPhone X was to the iPhone line. A refined look and new performance for a brand new decade of the corporate’s smartwatches. This is all the things we all know concerning the subsequent Apple Watch forward of it getting introduced later this 12 months.

When will the Apple Watch Sequence 10 be introduced?

Apple Watch bulletins are usually bundled alongside the iPhone. The Apple Watch Series 9 was introduced alongside the iPhone 15, the Apple Watch Series 8 was introduced alongside the iPhone 14, and so forth. It is a sample that is smart as a result of, whereas a mobile Apple Watch or Apple Watch Ultra can be utilized by itself, these are essentially equipment to a smartphone, displaying smartphone notifications and controlling playback of media in smartphone apps, to call simply two issues the Apple Watch can be utilized for.

We can’t know a agency date till later this 12 months, however contemplating Apple tends to announce its new smartphones in September earlier than placing them up for preorder just a few days later, odds are good that the Apple Watch Sequence 10 might be launched on the identical time.

What might be totally different concerning the Apple Watch Sequence 10?

A thinner watch physique

The Apple Watch has gotten extra compact over the past decade, however not practically as small as a conventional watch, like a Timex Weekender, for instance. Apple’s been in a position to enlarge the smartwatch’s show with out radically altering the scale of the gadget’s two sizes, 41mm and 45mm. Nevertheless, the sensors on the again of the watch that should be positioned in your wrist proceed to take up a big quantity of house, rising the watch’s total thickness.

According to Bloomberg, the Apple Watch X or Sequence 10 could have a thinner watch case and a brand new means for watch bands to connect that might open up extra room within the Watch itself. Ming-Chi Kuo, a dependable analyst monitoring Apple suppliers, corroborates Bloomberg’s reporting that the Sequence 10 will get thinner, and in addition claims Apple might introduce new display sizes too, taking the 41mm mannequin to 45mm, and the 45mm mannequin to 49mm. A bigger display is a year-over-year enchancment Apple has pushed for up to now, however at 49mm, the Apple Watch Sequence 10 could be encroaching on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 “Huge Watch” territory. And possibly that makes extra sense if Apple views the 49mm Sequence 10 because the iPhone 15 Plus of its smartwatch household.

New magnetic watch bands

In that very same report, Bloomberg claimed that the connector used to connect present watch bands from the primary Apple Watch to the Apple Watch Sequence 9 makes use of up a variety of house within the smartwatch that may be higher spent on a bigger battery or an total lowered measurement. Apple has “explored a brand new magnetic band attachment system” that might alleviate the issue, however Bloomberg’s report cautions that it won’t be prepared in time for the Apple Watch Sequence 10.

Contemplating simply what number of watch bands Apple and third-party accent makers have produced, switching to a brand new system, notably one which sounds costlier to fabricate and design round, is not a change to be taken frivolously. Avid Apple Watch house owners might be left with dozens of bands that do not work in any respect in the event that they resolve to improve, for instance. That is by no means stopped Apple earlier than, but it surely might definitely give a buyer contemplating an improve pause.

A shiny microLED show

Apple has been reportedly making an attempt to develop its own microLED displays for years now to be much less depending on Samsung, who makes lots of the shows for Apple’s numerous merchandise. The Apple Watch was purported to be the primary place the corporate was going to check its homegrown shows, both on the Apple Watch or the Apple Watch Extremely.

Now, Apple has reportedly scrapped plans to make use of the brighter, extra vibrant microLED Apple Watch show completely as a result of the shows “cannot add important worth to [the Apple Watch], and the manufacturing prices are too excessive to make it economically viable,” according to Ming-Chi Kuo. Analysts and leakers definitely get issues improper on a regular basis about Apple’s plans, however for now it looks like a brand new show on the Apple Watch Sequence 10 is unlikely.

What we would get as a substitute is a extra power-efficient show. Apple already makes use of low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) expertise on the Apple Watch to show and replace data on the display even when the Watch is not totally lit up, and now, according to The Elec, Apple plans on utilizing much more LTPO thin-filament transistors (TFT) within the subsequent Apple Watch to supply a show that sips battery life fairly than guzzles it. These transistors permit for exact management over how a lot gentle leaves a pixel in a show panel. Utilizing extra LTPO simply means the display might be much more environment friendly at low refresh charges, which is what the always-on show function of the Apple Watch is dependent upon.

One other attainable contributor to raised battery life might be the inclusion of a completely new sort of battery. TDK, one among Apple’s suppliers, recently announced that it efficiently developed a fabric for solid-state batteries that’s dramatically extra energy-dense than present solid-state and conventional lithium-ion choices. TDK’s new solid-state materials has “an power density of 1,000 Wh/L, roughly 100 occasions better than the power density of [its] standard solid-state battery.” If it reveals up in an Apple Watch, that might make an enormous distinction.

New well being detection and security options

Utilizing the Apple Watch to supply a non-invasive option to monitor blood glucose remains Apples white whale. Within the meantime, the corporate is reportedly planning to make use of the Apple Watch’s potential to measure respiration to detect sleep disturbances and allow you to and your physician know in case you might have sleep apnea. Extra probably helpful information to be thought of within the Vitals app Apple is including in watchOS 11.

Apple can also be planning on introducing the flexibility for the Apple Watch to detect elevated blood strain and log it right into a “blood strain journal” that may be crammed out with particulars about what was taking place when the elevated blood strain was detected. That is reportedly step one in the direction of a way more in depth measurement system that might finally inform your physician or heart specialist of your “precise systolic and diastolic measurements,” according to Bloomberg.

Apple / Pocket-lint

Security is a key element of what Apple sells with the Apple Watch and coronary heart well being is admittedly just one half. Fall detection, added with the Apple Watch Series 4, and car crash detection, launched with the Apple Watch Series 8, expanded the scope of what the smartwatch can detect. Now, primarily based on a patent spotted by Wareable that Apple filed in March 2024, it appears to be like like a future Apple Watch is also used to detect drowning.

The Apple Watch can already decide when somebody is swimming for exercise monitoring, however Apple’s patent suggests the identical sensors inbuilt to the smartwatch might additionally detect “irregular conduct” within the water and notify folks close by that one thing is improper. It is not clear if the function might be a part of the Apple Watch Sequence 10, but it surely would slot in properly with what the smartwatch can already do.

Will blood oxygen monitoring be on the Apple Watch Sequence 10?

The function hasn’t been added again in

Apple opted to promote modified variations of the Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Apple Watch Extremely 2 that had blood oxygen measurements disabled to get across the Worldwide Commerce Fee ban that was put into place after a US ITC decide dominated that Apple was violating well being tech firm Masimo’s blood oximetry expertise patents, an entire authorized mess you’ll be able to examine intimately in our article on the ban.

Since then, Bloomberg has reported that Apple engineers had been engaged on adjustments to the algorithms used for blood oxygen calculations that might permit the corporate to maneuver ahead with out having to vary the {hardware} of the Apple Watch. Whether or not these adjustments truly make it to this 12 months’s Watches stays to be seen.

When will the Apple Watch Sequence 10 be obtainable for buy?

Count on a fall launch

We can’t know for positive till Apple’s fall occasion, however as a tough estimate, if Apple broadcasts new telephones and smartwatches on a Tuesday in Sept., they’re usually obtainable to pre-order on Friday.

As to what they will price, it appears seemingly Apple will maintain the entry-level $399 value the identical, because it’s already promoting the Apple Watch Extremely at $799. The iPhone X was used to lift the worth of Apple’s high-end iPhones to $999 beginning in 2017, however that was earlier than the corporate started separating options and parts between regular iPhones and “Professional” and “Professional Max” tiers.

Is it nonetheless time to purchase an Apple Watch Sequence 9?

Not except you are getting a deal

In case you’re in any respect within the new design and probably unique new well being monitoring options on the Apple Watch Sequence 10, it is definitely worth the wait. The truth is, as a result of Apple is rumored to be transferring to a brand new sort of watch band, ready can even prevent from investing in watch elements that will not be helpful the subsequent time you purchase a brand new watch, too. Solely select the Sequence 9 in case you’re getting a significant low cost.