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Every year, for the last ten years(!) Apple has held a press event at their Cupertino, CA headquarters to highlight the launch of a new Apple Watch (and new iPhones, Air Pods, and iOS advancements). It’s kind of hard to believe that the Apple Watch, a device that some said years ago could spell the literal death of the watch industry, has been around for a full decade. The supposed takeover of smartwatches was always a little overblown, I think. At the end of the day, they simply aren’t luxury products, and thus don’t really compete with most mechanical watches. It’s been interesting to observe over this ten year period, in fact, how many watch enthusiasts have embraced the Apple Watch. We have, at any given time, multiple double wristers in our own Worn & Wound offices. This shouldn’t really be all that surprising, though. The Apple Watch, from the very beginning, has taken cues from the world of traditional watchmaking, and some of the bells and whistles associated with the latest version of the watch could have been lifted from the press release of any number of high end Swiss luxury brands.
The centerpiece of the Apple Watch news at today’s event is the all new Apple Watch Series 10. The new device is being described by Apple as its lightest and thinnest yet, boasting a 10% thinner case height than the Series 9, and a 20% lighter weight than the stainless steel version of last year’s watch. It’s just 9.7mm thick, and the display is larger than the Apple Watch Ultra without dramatically increasing the case footprint. The case has been given a subtle redesign to accommodate a screen with more rounded corners and, according to Apple, better viewing angles than previous editions of the watch.
Lighter and thinner with a bigger screen is a par for the course update on an Apple Watch from year to year, but the new bit that struck me the most was the special attention paid to materials and finishing. The stainless steel version of the watch has been replaced by a new titanium Apple Watch that has been fully polished. That’s impressive, and makes me wonder if there’s a Grand Seiko devotee on the Apple Watch design team. It’s available in three colors: gold, slate, and “natural”. We still have an aluminum case option as well (in Jet Black and Rose Gold), which has been given a similar highly polished look. Both aluminum and titanium versions of the watch are available in 42mm and 46mm case sizes, with the aluminum starting at $399 and the titanium starting at $699.
As you’d expect, there are a host of technological advances and upgrades with the watch, most of which can likely be classified as “incremental.” This is not a revolutionary relaunch of a product that some might have been anticipating given it’s the tenth anniversary, but more of another step in a process of continuous refinement. Apple says charging times have been dramatically reduced (even if battery life has not increased much at all) and that the watch now has an integrated depth gauge (a feature of the Ultra since its inception) that turns on once the watch is submerged. Audio (music and podcasts) can now be played directly through the Apple Watch speaker for the first time.
A considerable amount of time during the presentation was spent on promoting a new health feature of the watch, its ability to recognize sleep apnea via its built in accelerometer. Apple claims that the algorithm was developed using machine learning alongside mountains of clinical data, which was then validated in what was described as the largest clinical trial of its kind. Sleep apnea is an ailment that remains largely undiagnosed in many, so the possibility of millions of Apple Watch owners now having a window into this specific aspect of their personal health is a fairly significant development, assuming users who are notified they have indications of sleep apnea seek treatment.
Apple referred to the Series 10 as a “milestone in watchmaking” during their presentation, a statement that might ruffle the feathers of some traditionalists who separate “tech” from old world watchmaking. But the Apple Watch, by just about every measure, is the most worn watch in the world, and quibble as we may with defining it or contextualizing it with traditional watches, its annual refresh is almost by definition one of the biggest watch stories of the year.
All of the new Apple Watches are available for pre-order right now, with delivery beginning September 20. Apple
