I think that with a relatively heavily reimagining of watchOS 10, they might do a little something special with the Watch itself?
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So do you think we’ll see a redesigned Apple Watch this year, or will they hold off for the S10?
- Thread starter The Cockney Rebel
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I think they’ve got to produce something special, this year.
Not much of a change for the last few years.
They have traditionally gone three generations per style (sure the Series 0 and 1 are kind of a gray area), so my guess is that the 9 will have the same case style as the 7 and 8.
The last big redesigns were S5 and S7, so if they keep up this pattern, S9 should be a redesign, but who knows. The big changes in Watch OS 10 makes me think Apple might keep the current hardware design for another year, as they tend to stagger major software and hardware updates. But then there's the chance they could bring some of the hardware features from the Ultra to the regular watch. In other words, I have no idea!
Anybody’s guess. S7/S8 were very similar, so maybe due for a redesign… otoh the Ultra was released with the S8 so maybe another year? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess we’ll know in September!
I think it was S4/S5/S6 then S7/S8 as far as redesigns went. S4 introduced the larger screen of the S4/S5/S6 generation.
My guess would be that S9 would be similar to S7/S8 and we could see some kind of redesign for S10. That would be keeping in line with the three-year deign cycle of the iPhones also.
Okay. My recollection is that when I went from S4 to S6, I had to get a new case, because there was something different about the form factor, but I could get cases advertised for the S5 and they fit the S6. But I could be remembering wrong.
I'd expect some incremental improvements to build on the momentum behind the Ultra, but the mainstream watch will probably be little changed.
I feel like we'll see design elements of the Ultra come to both the 41mm and 45mm S10 models next year; I found it interesting how elements of the Ultra also found their way into the Vision Pro, and presumably, based on leaks, this year's iPhone Pros.
What elements of the Ultra do you see in Vision Pro?
Personally, I like the flat screen of the Ultra, and hope it comes to the regular Apple watch.
Just in the use of titanium, with the same orange accents as the Ultra. Also the perforation holes on the underside for ventillation, look like larger versions of the speaker holes on the Ultra.
VP uses titanium? I must have missed that! I thought it was all aluminum. Which parts are titanium?
Also I got a feeling, whenever the next major redesign will be, it will borrow the design language of the Ultra.
I think we’ll continue to see incremental changes over time. Maybe they’ll come up with a way for the back of the watch to better fit the contours of one’s wrist (if that’s possible?) The design on the AW is becoming iconic and I don’t think Apple will want to make drastic changes to the design, especially in a way that would confuse the AW with a Garmin or Samsung, or any other WearOS design.
I think the Ultra does fit better, at least on my wrist. The larger size Apple watches were all uncomfortable to wear, yet I could wear the Ultra and it rested comfortably against my wrist, even though it's larger than the bigger size regular watch.
I may be in the minority here, but I actually consider the Ultra to be the first major redesign of the Apple Watch lineup. Screen/case sizes have increased, health sensors and processors have been added, etc. but in general an Apple Watch 8 still looks pretty much like an Apple Watch 0. The only real thing that sticks out like a sore thumb on the older models is that rectangular display area that doesn't really fill in the entire crystal like it does on the newer ones.