Apple Watch has seen several iterations over the years, getting feature upgrades and minor design tweaks with every version. The biggest change we have seen has been the Apple Watch Ultra last year, which is a premium model that offers the best that Apple’s wearable platform has to offer.
With the watch set to get its tenth iteration next year, it appears the regular model is going to get a redesign with it. In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed that Apple is working on a redesign for the base Apple Watch coming next year, termed Apple Watch X.
Apple Watch to get the iPhone X treatment?
Gurman notes that the next Apple Watch, which is set to arrive this year, will be a relatively minor upgrade. The next one, however, will get a redesign, it appears, to mark the tenth anniversary of the first Apple Watch. The tenth-anniversary redesign isn’t quite a new concept, though, and we’ve seen Apple do it recently with the iPhone X.
Gurman wrote, “Apple Inc. is planning a splashy upgrade for its smartwatch, but you won’t see it this year. The 2023 models, due next month, will be a minor refresh — the kind of incremental update that has characterized the product in recent years.”
Apple has been discussing moving away from the yearly iterative upgrades to the Apple Watch, apparently. It will be sticking to that cycle, but with the next model, we can expect a design change.
Gurman explained, “Because of the Apple Watch’s slow evolution over the years, the design has remained largely the same since the Series 4 launched in 2018 — aside from the Ultra model.
But that’s poised to change. Apple is planning a “Watch X” model to mark the device’s 10-year anniversary, and it promises to be the biggest overhaul yet.”
Apparently, Apple is looking at a thinner watch case and a new magnetic band attachment. However, the current band mechanism takes up too much space, and Apple may opt for a mechanical system, which may or may not arrive with the Watch X, which looks like it may be the best Apple Watch upgrade yet.