The Apple Watch Series 8.
Apple could celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch with a "Watch X" launch in 2024 or 2025.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims Apple is working on the biggest revamp yet for the Apple Watch which will include a thinner watch case, magnetic band attachments, a microLED display, and a blood pressure monitoring technology.
The team involved in the development of the Watch X thinks the current slide and lock mechanism for the watch band takes up unnecessary space in the chassis. That space could be better used for fitting in a bigger battery or other new components. A magnetic band attachment system is being explored, but Gurman says it may not be ready or be used in the Watch X.
As for microLED, Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple plans to debut the new display technology on the Apple Watch Ultra towards the end of 2024.
However, a recent report suggests the launch of the Apple Watch Ultra with microLED could be delayed till Q1 2026 due to the complexity of the new display technology. It is unclear whether Apple will debut microLED on the Watch X in 2024 or 2025 followed by the Watch Ultra in 2026, or debut the new display technology on both models in 2025
Apple has been rumoured to be working on the blood pressure monitoring technology for many years. In 2017, Patently Apple discovered a patent application by Apple which was titled "Wrist Worn Accelerometer for Pulse Transmit Time (PTT) Measurements of Blood Pressure".
The Wall Street Journal claimed in 2021 that Apple's version of blood pressure monitoring will not show a baseline measure of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Instead, it will show a trending chart of the user's blood pressure.
Gurman wrote in July last year that the blood pressure monitoring feature will not be ready until 2025. He added that the blood pressure monitoring feature will alert users of hypertension.
If and when the blood pressure monitoring technology arrives on the Apple Watch X in 2024 or 2025, it would be considered late to the party as Samsung rolled out the feature in Singapore since June 2021 for the Galaxy Watch 3, Watch Active2 and newer models.
As for this year's Apple Watch, Gurman believes that the improvements would be minor and states "the most noticeable differences will be faster processors and fresh colours".
Source: Bloomberg
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