Like the iPhone, the Apple Watch is stuck in a (very successful) rut. With the notable exception of the Apple Watch Ultra, a niche variant for people who love massive watches, the watch we have today is nearly indistinguishable from the ones Apple sold back in 2018. There have been little nips and tucks since the Series 4—minuscule changes to the bezel size or watch thickness—but you’d be hard-pressed to tell today’s Apple Watch from the one Apple sold 7 years ago.
Most of the updates have been to the internal components. Faster and more capable processors, improved sensors, brighter displays, faster charging, and other welcome changes have kept Apple Watch on top. It’s the best-selling watch of any kind in the world.
According to a Weibo post from leaker Instant Digital (with a mixed record), Apple Watch is due for another routine upgrade year in 2026 and 2027. This contradicts an earlier report from DigiTimes (a source that also has a mixed record) previously claimed that there would be a big redesign in 2026 related to some new sensors. This new source claims the big design change is now two years away, with the aim of arriving a year after the 20th anniversary iPhone, which is expected to arrive in late 2027.
At this point, it’s hard to know what to believe—rumors of significant redesigns to the Apple Watch are fairly common and never seem to materialize. The so-called Apple Watch X never arrived, nor did the big change bringing redesigned band connectors. In some cases, “redesign” is somewhat misconstrued…what counts as a “redesign” ends up being a very minimal change, such as a slightly changed Digital Crown or an almost imperceptible change in thickness.
Author: Jason Cross, Senior Editor, Macworld
Jason has written about technology for more than 25 years - first in the gaming press, then focusing on enthusiast PCs and general technology. He enjoys learning how complicated technology works and explaining it in a way anyone can understand.