Going into today’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ event, there were high expectations for a significant redesign for this, the tenth version of the Apple Watch. We’ve been burned before by rumors of a redesign, but thankfully, this year’s rumors turned out to be true. The new Apple Watch Series 10 looks like a noticeable upgrade; however the Apple Watch Ultra wasn’t upgraded and only received a new color option.
Hardware Redesign
The first Apple Watches measured 38mm and 41mm, but their height has gradually increased over the years to 41mm and 45mm, respectively, for last year’s Series 9. This year marks the most dramatic form factor change in many years, as not only do the watch faces get a notable size increase, but the devices themselves are much thinner.
The case overall has more rounded corners, and the sizes have jumped up 1mm each to 42mm and 46mm. With that increase in size, the Series 10 now offers 9% more screen real estate than the Series 9, surpassing even the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The watch features a new wide-angle OLED screen, which Apple claims offers up to 40% more brightness when viewed from an angle. The OLED screen is also now more power efficient, allowing the refresh rate in always-on mode to dramatically increase from once a minute to once a second. This means that watch faces will show ticking second hands and, I’d imagine, more frequent updates to a workout screen when in always-on mode.
The back of the case is now matched in material and color to the rest of the watch, making it seem like the entire case is one single piece of metal. The case’s back is now integrated with the antenna, too, combining two layers into one. The Series 10 is thinner than before, coming in at 9.7mm, 1mm thinner than the Series 9. This was achieved by engineering the new S10 SiP with a thinner profile.
As for materials, the Series 10 now comes in glossy, jet-black aluminum, along with an updated rose gold tint and the existing brushed silver variant. This year, the Apple Watch is also available in titanium (which replaces the stainless steel options) with natural, gold, and slate finishes.
All new models are lighter than their previous generations while maintaining the same listed 18-hour battery life. For example, the 42mm titanium Apple Watch is a massive 10 grams lighter than the previous 41mm stainless steel model and 5 grams lighter than the 42mm Series 10.
Depth and Temperature Sensors and a New Tides App
Just like the Apple Watch Ultra, the new Series 10 now includes a water temperature sensor and a depth gauge that measures down to six meters. (The Ultra goes further: up 40 meters.) With that, the Depth app moves over from the Apple Watch Ultra to the Series 10.
Apple is introducing a new Tides app that shows tidal forecasts for the next 7 days for coastlines and surf spots around the world. This includes high and low tides, rising and falling tides, tide height and direction, and sunrise and sunset. The data is all visually presented in the app on a horizontal timeline. Users can see nearby beaches on a map and use complications on their watch faces to show current tide levels.
The company also announced the release of a new app called Oceanic+, developed with Huish Outdoors, that shows details of local snorkeling locations.
Watch Faces and Bands
Apple revealed two more watch faces today, joining the new Photos watch face in watchOS 11. The first, called Flux, is a simple design with bold numbers and a gauge that fills the screen with each second that passes. The second, Reflections, is designed to complement the reflective titanium cases available for the Series 10 and features a shimmering dial that reacts as you adjust the angle of your watch to make it look more realistic.
The Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet bands have been updated with the new colors to match the Series 10, and the Nike Sport Loop and Sport Band are available in new colorways as well. Lastly, Hermès has released four new watch bands, including their first metal band, the Grand H.
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Unfortunately, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 didn’t receive an update and remains on the S9 chip. The only love it saw was the introduction of a sleek new black titanium finish and the new Titanium Milanese Loop. Both of these look incredible, but it’s disappointing not to see any updates to the hardware, especially since the Series 10 received a new processor and a screen that is now larger than the Apple Watch Ultra.
Additional Tidbits
- Any Apple Watch Series 10 model with a Sport Loop band, Braided Solo Loop, or Milanese Loop is now carbon neutral.
- You can now playback audio through the Apple Watch speakers. It’s unclear if this will be limited to the Series 10.
- The Series 10 now uses the Neural Engine and a new voice isolation neural network to reduce background noise during phone calls.
- Fast charging is now even faster: up 80% in 30 minutes, down from 45 minutes with the Series 9.
- There is a new sleep apnea detection feature, which you can find more details about here.
Final Thoughts
This year’s updates to the Apple Watch seem very compelling. A lighter and thinner form factor might be enough to tempt many Series 9 owners, not to mention people with older models. Furthermore, there are several small quality-of-life updates that are very welcome, like faster charging and the ability to play audio through the device’s speakers. In contrast, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 looks a little sad, literally just given a fresh coat of paint. Maybe next year will be its time to shine.
You can preorder the Apple Watch Series 10 and the black Apple Watch Ultra 2 now. Both devices will be available starting Friday, September 20th.
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