Apple Watch Sales Falling Continuously Amid Lack of New Models

[TTTedP]

my wish list;

1. 4-5 day battery
2. Round
3. Buttons
4. Broadcast HR (via normal BLE or ANT+)

I like the Apple integration and SW features but for now still prefer my Garmin. 1 & 4 would be enough for me to switch full time.

 

[ayephoner]

I'd like a 'regular' model with an ultra sized screen, maybe bigger. Thinner would be nice. I'm also anxious for the BP monitoring.

 

[I7guy]

Well it is poor by smartwatch standards. My old-model Garmin gets 11 days plus - meaning that I don’t have to think about charging it the night before a run. I also don’t see how sleep tracking can become a nightly thing if you need to charge your Apple Watch while you’re sleeping. Unless you factor in a half-dead watch every morning.

15 minutes gets me almost up to 80%. Plug it in while brushing my teeth and done. Or plug it in while showering in the morning and have it last 24 hours.

Also, those garmins don’t do nearly all of what an AW can do. Yes the garmin is focused, but the AW is an iPhone extension.

Edit: my own flip phone used to get 1 week with the extended battery. But battery life is not a concern in 2025 with the ability to charge almost anywhere.

 

[ayephoner]

15 minutes gets me almost up to 80%. Plug it in while brushing my teeth and done. Or plug it in while showering in the morning and have it last 24 hours.

Also, those farmings don’t do nearly all of what an AW can do. Yes the garmin is focused, but the AW is an iPhone extension.

I completely agree. I almost prefer having to charge everyday because it becomes a part of my routine. I take it off and charge it when I shower and get dressed, then put it back on after I'm dressed, which feels natural. It's at 100% when I put it back on. And the apple integration is what I like best. Every app, every interaction has the same feel from watch to phone.

 

[Macaholic868]

Sleep tracking is great - but works best when you have two Apple Watches to rotate. If you rotate watches, they last even longer - basically doubles how long the battery health last.

Agreed. That’s what I only recently did. I’m not downgrading to a device without blood oxygen monitoring so I grabbed a Series 9 last year that was used but in excellent condition and was new enough that I still got AppleCare+ on it until 9/25/2026. I went the Graphite Stainless Steal with Milanese Loop route for a nice watch I can wear out to dinner or to work and kept the Aluminum Series 7 with the Sports Loop that I was upgrading from to wear at night when I sleep, or when I’m out swimming or engaging in some other activity where I don’t want to worry about having something happen to the more expensive version or need to pause to spend time to swap watch bands, etc. and ir works great.

I usually the swap them before bed which is normally between 11 PM and 11:30 PM, I’ll sleep with the 7 on and the sport loop for maximum comfort and don’t notice that I’m wearing it any longer when I sleep. That gives me sleep tracking with a watch charged to 100% in the morning and if I don’t swap them for whatever reason I can usually wait until 6 or 7 at night before the battery is low enough on the 7 that I need to swap it out.

When Apple gets their act together and puts out an actual upgrade that can do everything the early Series 9 models could do with the 10’s form factor and some additional sensors and/or software functionality that makes it a clear upgrade over the 9 then the 9 will get the sports loop, I’ll get a nice new Apple Watch 12, assuming it’ll be some point in 2026 when the patent expires but it won’t make sense to rush out and upgrade until the next year’s model is released with hopefully even better features.

Until then I’m content but a reader on here was nice enough to point out all that the Huawei D2 Watch can do, right now, including blood pressure monitoring and an app that feeds data directly into the Apple Health app that certainly appears to be worth a look while Apple fumbles getting blood pressure or the holy grail of blood sugar monitoring without breaking the skin down.

I can tell you without a doubt if s competitor produces a device that can do both, it’ll be bye, bye Apple. They’ve earned zero goodwill from this patent dispute given their deep pockets. It’s ridiculous that they won’t pony up for a few generations and pay the licensing fee.

 

[Grayburn]

Well it is poor by smartwatch standards. My old-model Garmin gets 11 days plus - meaning that I don’t have to think about charging it the night before a run. I also don’t see how sleep tracking can become a nightly thing if you need to charge your Apple Watch while you’re sleeping. Unless you factor in a half-dead watch every morning.

I can sometimes squeeze 3 days out of my Ultra 2 and i use sleep tracking every night and its on such a routine that it'll need charging usually between 9-11pm and then its fully charged before bed.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Does anyone else start out with “Who is Counterpoint Research” and “How do they come up with their numbers?”

 

[robd003]

I switched to Garmin a few years ago and couldn't be happier. My watch battery lasts 28 days and the insights from workouts is amazing. Just by wearing the watch it will tell me what muscle groups I used!

All of this without any kind of app subscription garbage!

 

[magicschoolbus]

I mean the new ones have less features than the old ones.. so?

 

[Ian Howlett]

It’s a product you can very much do without. I haven’t worn a watch in over 20 years.

 

[Student of Life]

I'd like a 'regular' model with an ultra sized screen, maybe bigger. Thinner would be nice. I'm also anxious for the BP monitoring.

So basically just a series 10 which is typically on sale for like 300?

 

[I7guy]

I switched to Garmin a few years ago and couldn't be happier. My watch battery lasts 28 days and the insights from workouts is amazing. Just by wearing the watch it will tell me what muscle groups I used!

All of this without any kind of app subscription garbage!

It’s not about the battery life it’s about the functionality. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[Burger Thing]

Apart from the Ultra (which I personally like) but is probably too big for the average person, the standard Watch is just incredibly boring. A product without soul, and unlike a non-Smart, unable to provide a some sort of a fashion or lifestyle statement. Maybe for a lot of people screen and notification fatigue has kicked in as well.

Not looking too great for Apple right now, IMHO. App Store changes, a complete and utter failure in AI development which put them years behind schedule are also reminders to whatever goes up, has to come down again at some point.

 

[Atomic1977]

I have a  WATCH se 2nd gen and I see no need to update. It’s a great device.

 

[I7guy]

Apple did such a great job with the AW it is do pervasive. I knew apple hit the nail on the head with s10 and I jumped on it and got two on sale.

I think in peoples minds it’s much different to upgrade a watch every x years than a phone.

Apple has to get sp02 enabled by concluding the lawsuit, measuring (even approximately BP and glucose would be an instant seller.

There’s a lot of swirl around apple now, but my money is on them.

 

[ayephoner]

So basically just a series 10 which is typically on sale for like 300?

So basically not.

Bigger screen. Series 10 has a 46mm case, ultra has a 49mm case. I'd like a case that big or bigger would be better. And the 10 is a bit thinner than the 9, but I'd like to think if they went with a larger footprint, they could make it even thinner. I don't need the ruggedness of the ultra or cellular or satellite connectivity. The ultra is too thick for me and I don't want to pay for a bunch of stuff I don't need. And beyond any of that, I won't be buying a new apple watch until it has blood pressure features.

Can I get all of that for like 300?

 

[BC2009]

I went from 1 to 4 to 7 and might snag a 10 if there's any good clearance soon... Basically every time they've increased screen size I've upgraded. I could care less about 80% of the features. I just love having time, date, weather, market, notifications, etc. available at a quick glance without pulling my phone out. The bigger the screen, the more instant info I can get.

I went 1, 2, 4 and then 7. Got the 2 because of the huge jump in performance but other than that I was driven by screen size until they pulled the blood oxygen functionality.

Oh… and the Ultra (while bigger) only had a negligibly larger screen and bigger bezels than the 7 so that screen size jump was not interesting to me.

 

[frownface]

Funny thing about watches; people tend to keep them for a really long time.

I have watches i've owned for a couple decades that I still use sometimes. They get their battery replace every few years and a new strap now and then but it's not something i shop for yearly.

Apple is a business that banks on customers turning over their devices every year/2 years etc. These ideaologies simply clash.