It's Friday - let's talk Apple Watch Series X

Guys, we might finally get a redesigned Apple Watch. FINALLY.

Aug 18, 2023

Over the past few years, it’s been evident that Apple has become complacent with where the Apple Watch stands. After enduring the growing pains of the device’s early years, the watch has established itself as one of the best smartwatches on the market, complete with some of the most advanced health-tracking tools you can find.

Because of its distant lead over the competition, however, Apple hasn’t been pressured to do anything crazy with the Apple Watch. And from the Series 4 onward, almost every new Apple Watch has looked the same, with slim bezels around the screen, one or two extra health features, and a slight performance improvement sprinkled in for good measure.

Many Apple Watch owners haven’t been compelled to upgrade for years, all for the simple reason that more often than not, their watch still works fine and the new one looks like the same thing on their wrist. That trend changed a bit when the rough-and-tough Apple Watch Ultra dropped last year, but it wasn’t enough to compel average fitness enthusiasts or modest Apple Watch users to jump from their watch to one that costs $800.

If Apple wants to drive more people to upgrade, it has to go big with a revamped version of the Apple Watch, complete with some type of major redesign. And wouldn’t you know it, it looks like we might get just that with (drumroll please) the Apple Watch X next year.

The 10th-gen Apple Watch is coming…

The Apple Watch X has officially entered the rumor cycle thanks to Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter, the Bloomberg reporter and avid Apple leaker shared details on Apple’s upcoming 10th-generation watch, which is expected to make a number of fundamental changes similar to how the iPhone X revamped Apple’s smartphone line in 2017.

The biggest physical change coming to the Apple Watch X is a new band mechanism, which has basically gone unaffected since the original Apple Watch launched (you can still use bands from the Series 0 on today’s Series 8, for example). Apple is reportedly tired of the amount of space it takes up in the actual case, so for the Series X, it’s trying to ditch it in favor of a slimmer one that uses magnets to secure your straps.

That would probably mean the locking mechanism we’re all familiar with—the one that requires long fingernails to press the button hard enough to release a band—would be no more. Instead, you might be able to simply slide a band off your Apple Watch and snap a new one into place, relying solely on magnets to ensure it stays connected. Gurman says Apple might not have this new mechanism ready for the Series X, but it’s an interesting concept nonetheless.

Using a magnetic locking mechanism would allow Apple to shrink the size of the Apple Watch’s case. It would also give them more room inside for things like a bigger battery, one of the most requested features from non-Ultra users. I yearn for the day when a standard Apple Watch can last two days on a charge—here’s to hoping the Series X brings just that.

The upgrades don’t stop there. Gurman reports that Apple is also considering moving to microLED for the display, a first for the Apple Watch which has used OLED since the very first model. This would allow for richer and more vibrant colors while retaining inky black levels.

Finally, Gurman says that Apple is preparing to bring blood pressure monitoring to the Apple Watch with the Series X, which will be huge for those who need to track their numbers throughout the day.

In case you’re wondering, there’s no word on whether the Series X will get flat sides like we were expecting on the Series 7 a couple of years ago. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

…and it’s about time.

I feel like we’ve all been waiting for a redesigned Apple Watch for years. When the Apple Watch Ultra came out last year, a lot of my friends ran out and got one because it was the first watch from Apple that actually looked different, had different features, and did different things compared to the standard model. No, a majority of them are not hikers or scuba divers, but they do appreciate having something different from the norm.

Based on that small pool of users (which I feel represents a lot of different people), there’s a strong desire for a different Apple Watch. Something that shakes things up, gets people talking, and builds up hype like the original model. A Series X could be the perfect way to do that.

What about the Series 9?

Naturally, if the Apple Watch conversation has shifted to the mysterious Series X, you might be wondering whether the Series 9 will be any good. After all, we’re still expecting it to come out alongside the iPhone 15 in September. And if you’re itching for an upgrade, you may be asking yourself whether you should pull the trigger now or wait another 12 months.

In my opinion, it’s probably gonna be worth waiting. When it launches next month, the Series 9 will undoubtedly be seen as a minor update with an otherwise all-too-familiar design and feature set.

Apple isn’t expected to update the watch very much at all, beyond the usual processor refresh and new colors. It’ll have the same size screens as the Series 8, the same health tracking tools, the same watchOS software, and the same band mechanism. By every account, 2023 will be a boring year for the Apple Watch, which makes me want to warn as many folks as possible to wait for next year if they’re thinking about upgrading.

Of course, the same could be said about every recent Apple Watch as well. Apple has been on an incremental update kick with its smartwatch line, making each one a bit better than the last to ensure you get a quality watch when it comes time to upgrade.

But I think this year is different. If it’s time for you to upgrade your Apple Watch—let’s say from a Series 3 or 4—you might be tempted to pick up a Series 9 and enjoy all the features it’ll give you. That’s perfectly fine—it’s your money, spend it how you wish. However, if you want something different that has the potential to dictate the direction of the next 10 years of Apple Watches, you might want to wait to see what comes of all this Series X talk.

Do we know for sure that Apple is planning a 10th-generation Apple Watch? No, but that comes with every rumored Apple product. Gurman is one of the most reliable leakers in the business, regularly delivering accurate scoops on the inner workings of Apple and details on upcoming products well before they ship. Hearing him report on a 10th-gen Apple Watch with reasonable confidence in its existence is telling as it is.

We’ve seen major 10th-gen products like this before, the biggest being the iPhone X which introduced a complete redesign of the iPhone. Apple is no stranger to celebrating major products with design refreshes, so it seems reasonable to believe we’ll get another taste of that next year (y’know, assuming these rumors remain afloat over the next 6-8 months).

I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop. This will be one of the closest stories I follow throughout 2024.

Three stories worth reading

This review of the Galaxy Z Fold 5: My buddy Allison Johnson at The Verge has a great review of Samsung’s latest $1,799 foldable phone, and it perfectly sums up what this phone is: “a little better.” I just got a review unit myself and as I’ve been playing with it, the only vibe I get from it is that it’s a little bit better than the Fold 4. I guess that’s fine? I mean, there’s some serious competition on the market now thanks to the Pixel Fold. But whatever, I suppose Samsung can get away with a candy bar-shaped phone for another year.
This article on political bias in ChatGPT: The Washington Post covered a new paper published by UK-based researchers who discovered that chatbots like ChatGPT tend to lean liberal when it comes to politics. That includes not just queries sourced from the US, but the UK and Brazil as well.
This breakdown of what happened with Snapchat’s My AI Story: Many Snapchat users around the world were disturbed to find that My AI, the company’s AI-powered chatbot, posted its own story and went briefly offline. Some thought it became sentient, others thought it was just a glitch. According to Snapchat, it was indeed a glitch, but it was quite odd nonetheless.

Shameless plugs

I’ve written a lot of stuff over the past few weeks, so here’s a sampling of some of the work I’ve done.

I reviewed the weird and wacky Lenovo Yoga Book 9i. (CNN Underscored)
I reviewed the new Galaxy Z Flip 5 from Samsung. (CNN Underscored)
I compared the Z Flip 5 to the Moto Razr+, one of the best foldable phones of the year. (CNN Underscored)
I reviewed the new Galaxy Tab S9 and S9 Plus from Samsung. (TheStreet)
I wrote about the new Samsung Freestyle Gen 2, marking my first byline on Sports Illustrated Showcase (a very big deal if you are me or my mother lol).
Nomad made a glow-in-the-dark Sport Band for the Apple Watch, so you know I had to cover it. (CNN Underscored)

As you can probably tell, I’ve done a bit of housekeeping to keep my Substack looking fresh. Hope you all dig the new logos!

I may or may not have merch with the new wordmarks on the way… stay tuned!