For the tenth anniversary of its first connected watch, Apple is preparing an Apple Watch X with improved design, display and measurements. We take stock of the rumors.
For the tenth anniversary of its first Apple Watch, Apple plans to launch a new model full of new features, the Apple Watch X. Expected at the end of 2024, the connected watch has already been the subject of several leaks. So we take stock of everything we know about Apple’s next watch.
An Apple Watch X as radical as the iPhone
Next year, Apple will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its range of connected watches, the Apple Watch. Like what the manufacturer was able to offer for the ten years of the iPhone, with the iPhone an Apple Watch
The first rumor about this Apple Watch The journalist, generally very well informed about Apple’s projects, revealed in August 2023 that “ Apple prepares a ‘Watch X’ model to mark ten years of the device, which promises to be the biggest change yet“.
It must be said that, from year to year, the changes made to the Apple Watch have been rather minor. As Mark Gurman points out, Apple is not looking to revolutionize its watch with new hardware features in order to encourage consumers to change models every year. The manufacturer favors incremental new features by adding a new processor allowing double tapping for the Apple Watch Series 9, a temperature sensor to track your menstrual cycle for the Apple Watch Series 8, or a larger screen with faster charging for Apple Watch Series 7.
The Apple Watch X could mark, for the first time, a major change in terms of display, design and health functions. New features which should, like the iPhone X for smartphones, pave the way for the years to come for Apple.
All-new display technology for Apple Watch
For several years, Apple has increased the number of components developed internally for its devices. After mobile chips or processors, the firm is now working hard to develop panels for its own devices.
The idea behind this development would be twofold. On the one hand, this would allow Apple to rely less on Samsung Display for screens. On the other hand, for the manufacturer it would be a question of designing displays not Oled, but microLED.
This display technology is based on a principle similar to Oled in the sense that each pixel is self-emissive and will therefore generate not only its own colors, but also its own brightness. Enough to allow infinite contrast. However, microLED offers a major advantage over Oled: the LEDs in question are not designed using organic components. Therefore, microLED screens can go up to a much higher brightness than Oled, without the risk of marking due to overheating.
Currently, Apple Watch screens offer a maximum brightness of 2000 cd/m² – in the case of the Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra – or 3000 cd/m² – in the case of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. With a microLED display, the manufacturer could offer even greater brightness, for perfect readability, even in broad daylight despite the reflections of the sun.
According to information published by Mark Gurman in August 2023, Apple would have planned to inaugurate this display technology with its Apple Watcha microLED display that surpasses the colors and clarity of current OLED screens“.
However, other reports suggest that Apple would struggle to develop this technology profitably. In particular, the high rate of defective slabs, and therefore too low a yield according to information from the Korean siteThe Elec. According to analyst Ross Young, specializing in display production lines, Apple would not be able to launch sufficiently efficient production by the start of 2025. For analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, this technology would ultimately only be ready for the 2025 model at the earliest, and therefore for the Apple Watch Series 11 – or even the Series 12 – and not the Apple Watch X.
A new design for the Apple Watch
Since the first Apple Watch, presented in September 2014 and released in April 2015, the manufacturer’s watches have changed very little in appearance.
Watches have always had a square screen with rounded edges. Note, however, that the Apple Series 8 was the first to offer a slightly more edge-to-edge screen. For its part, the Apple Watch Series 4 was the first to present a design with a rotating crown a little more integrated into the case, while emphasizing health.
Apple, however, has innovated somewhat with its Ultra range. The Apple Watch Ultra allowed the manufacturer to try integrating a second button and a slightly more massive and angular structure.
For the Apple Watch X, however, it seems that the manufacturer is ready to go even further. According to information from Mark Gurman, the watch would benefit from a “thinner case» and the manufacturer would have “explored a change of attachment for bracelets“.
It must be said that, since the first Apple Watch in 2014, Apple has always ensured that its bracelets are compatible with all Apple Watches. However, this system would have some flaws, including the space occupied by the attachment system, within the housing itself: “the system takes up considerable space that would be better filled by a larger battery or other components“.
Concretely, the Apple Watch X bracelet system could be based on a magnetic attachment.
A design already seen in the past?
Furthermore, if Apple has innovated very little in terms of the design of its Apple Watch since the first generation, this does not mean that the brand is resting on its laurels.
Throughout 2021, images presented as “3D renders of the Apple Watch Series 7» peppered the canvas. Above all, this information did not come from just any sources. If leaker Jon Prosser was the first to publish visuals, this information was quickly corroborated by Mark Gurman, then by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The American journalist then affirmed that the Apple Watch Series 7 would be entitled to “a bit of a redesign with a flatter screen and updated display technology »while the Chinese analyst bet on a “significant change in format“.
However, on September 14, 2021, when the Apple Watch Series 7 was announced: woes. The watch looked exactly like a Series 6 with finer bezels. No flat screen, no more than flat borders, like Apple products. As we have written, this does not mean that this information was false — it is unlikely that everyone had incorrect information at the same time.
It could be, more simply, that the leaks did not concern the Apple Watch Series 7, but a later watch… and why not a watch celebrating the 10th anniversary of the range, like the Apple Watch Series X.
It should be noted that no leaker goes so far as to say that the Apple Watch
New health metrics on Apple Watch
For several years, Apple has been working to improve the health data collected by its Apple Watches. The Apple Watch Series 4, in 2018, marked a big step forward in the data offered with the arrival, in addition to heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) and electrocardiogram ( ECG).
However, for five years, the American manufacturer has innovated very little, contenting itself with measuring skin temperature for its Apple Watch Series 8.
However, we know that Apple is working hard on other health measurements including blood sugar levels, particularly useful for diabetics, or blood pressure. If the manufacturer does not yet seem to have succeeded in analyzing users’ blood sugar levels, it intends to offer a “blood pressure monitoring technology» on his Apple Watch X, as Mark Gurman indicates.
Currently, a few watches already offer tracking of this type. This is particularly the case for the Huawei Watch D and the Xiaomi Watch H1, whose bracelets can swell, but also for Samsung watches… provided you have calibrated the watch with a blood pressure monitor beforehand. For now, we still don’t know how the Apple Watch X could measure the user’s blood pressure.
As a reminder, measuring blood pressure, or blood pressure, will help prevent cases of arterial hypertension, that is to say a blood flow which will exert too much pressure on the walls of the arteries with a value exceeding 140/90 (mmHg).
Apple Watch X price and availability
Every year, it is during the month of September that Apple presents its new connected watches, at the same time as the new iPhones.
If we take into account the calendar of previous years, we can therefore count on a presentation of the Apple Watch X during the first half of September 2024:
- Apple Watch Series 9: September 12, 2023
- Apple Watch Series 8: September 7, 2022
- Apple Watch Series 7: September 14, 2021
- Apple Watch Series 6: September 15, 2020
This does not mean, however, that the watch will necessarily be launched in the following weeks. According to information from Ming-Chi Kuo, the Apple Watch In question, the microLED screen that Apple would seek to develop for its connected watch and whose design would have fallen behind schedule.
As for the price, it remains to be seen what strategy Apple will adopt. Remember that the manufacturer launched its iPhone X alongside the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and that it was logically offered at a much higher price than its two cousins. For the Apple Watch X, it should be the only model in the classic Apple Watch line next year. However, Apple could sweeten the price tag higher than the Series 8 or 9 by announcing the watch alongside a new Apple Watch SE 2024.
Therefore, we can easily imagine an announcement at a price well above 600 euros and close to the prices of the Apple Watch Ultra 2, at 900 euros. However, this is pure speculation at this point.
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