Apple Watch 2 needs integrated SIM (eSIM), GPS, more health features (i.e. for diabetics), work with hearing-aids w/o iPhone, needs to be thinner (but connect with current bands) and apps should run without the need for iPhone. I do not care about the camera but others do.
That's quite a wishlist but Apple is known to find solutions that don't necessarily take the expected route.
Cell coverage isn't the only way to get online and LTE is the least efficient for battery. GPS is also a battery hog that could be replaced with alternatives like known network triangulation. Apple could get creative. For example, Apple could enable a hidden open mesh network of iPhones. Given the hundreds of millions of iPhones in circulation, Apple Watches could recognize iPhones in the vicinity to determine location and to use them as mini cell towers accessible via WiFi instead of LTE. You would pay a small subscription to your cell provider to access the internet from your AppleWatch without your own iPhone present. It wouldn't affect the data usage of the anonymous iPhones that would be used. Like a torrent, many iPhones in the vicinity of the Apple Watch would spread the data use. Given the mostly text usage of AppleWatch, data use per iPhone would be negligible, somewhere in the sub 100kb range. First generation Apple Watches would be able to access this technology with their existing WiFi hardware or Apple could build next generation tech geared to optimize this type of mesh network or artificially limit it to Apple Watch 2 as a selling point.
Diabetics are a very large demographic which Apple should cater to but as Tim Cook has said in recent statements, building medical devices into the AppleWatch would slow down its updates and progress due to government bureaucracy. It's more likely that we'll see an existing glucose monitoring devices company build integration with AppleWatch or with HealthKit via iPhone. It's not yet possible to monitor blood glucose levels reliably without direct contact with blood but whenever a technique is perfected, I would expect that diabetics could wear a bracelet or a patch that would connect with AppleWatch via Bluetooth.
I like the idea of integrating hearing aids with Apple Watch. Bluetooth enabled hearing aids could be used as a "Siri in your head". This would be a technology useful with people other than the deaf. Blind people could use Siri and tapping as a very effective user interface. More advanced hearing aids could even measure other body analytics such as core body temperature and contribute to heart rate measurement accuracy. Again, Apple doesn't need to be the one to build the hearing aids, they'd only have to enable to connection with AppleWatch and invite 3rd parties that already service that niche market.
A camera is likely in an upcoming AppleWatch. If not in the next generation, sometime in the near future. There's room for a front facing camera that could be faced towards a scene by flipping your wrist. Orientation would always be right side up, even if the watch is upside down when you flip your wrist. This would allow for a single camera to serve for both FaceTime and for pictures, although the latter would be framed blindly and a suggested crop done in software based on face recognition. A high megapixel sensor and a very wide lens could make it that framing is something that you do in post production. Just point and shoot, then adjust the crop when you're done.
I expect that the next AppleWatch will indeed be thinner, include 3D touch for a more capable user interface with different levels of pressure allowing for a better navigation. Speed is a major issue that needs to be addressed in the next generation so that apps open instantly. Waiting for an app to open defeats the purpose of the micro interaction nature that the watch is servicing. The watch band slot looks to be made to fit watches of ever decreasing width without needing to replace the bands. This is a smart strategy as it'll encourage owners of an Apple Watch who've built up a collection of bands to upgrade their Apple Watch routinely while not having to re-start their band collection.
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