Apple Watch X: Apple Watch's Most Dramatic Change Yet?

It looks like some big changes are coming to Apple Watch this year

Probably in September, definitely not in March. Take it away, Griffin. Tell us about it

Sure. So we've run a series of these articles. What to expect from all these Apple products categories

We're going to bring special attention to the one on the watch because this sounds like it might be one of the most dramatic year-over-year changes in their lineup

So, yeah, the Apple Watch world's most popular wearable. it could get its biggest redesign in its 10-year history

in the form of advice potentially called Apple Watch Series 10 spelled with an X, or simply Apple Watch X

you know, leading to another year of us correcting people who call it Apple Watch X

Some people saying, oh, no, it just sounds cooler. There's nothing wrong with that. X

Oh, well. I'll die on that hill. Yeah, so, you know, the bigger question is

well, Apple, as the story starts, will Cooper? to sell any Apple Watches in 2024, you know, because in the story that we've been covering

Apple was forced to stop selling the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9 in the United States

Right now, they're on a, because of a patent dispute by medical device maker Massimo

which claims the blood oxygen feature violates their patents. They're currently for sale right now until January 10th as we record this, but after January

10th, they're going to be blocked from sale yet again. I don't know, I'll be honest, like

I don't know how long this band is going to go on for. I think because Apple is having their

fourth quarter like financial results thing I think in like the first few days of February like either February 1st or like you know the following Tuesday I bet Apple will probably have an announcement by then because it would look very bad

if they have to say to their investors that they don't have a solution to this problem yet

So I expect this to be resolved by the end of January. I feel like that Apple watches are probably going to remain on sale throughout the whole of 2024

But anyways, coming in September. Let's scroll down post all this. What exactly would an X upgrade look like for Apple Watch

According to Mark German, a slimmer design with a larger screen, a new magnetic band connector, and new sensors are all on the cards

While the Apple Watch's screen has grown somewhat over the years, and the overall case has gotten a little bit rounder

the basic form factor of the regular Apple Watch is made largely unchanged. There have been persistent rumors that would switch to a flat-sided design

but that never happened. Thankfully, I thought those were all ugly. Oh, you did? I loved them

I thought they were beautiful, but yeah, we never got them, did we? The thing is

if they were like flat sides on that, it would get caught on like a

you would bump it all the time. Like the fact that it's rounded means that, you know, it doesn't catch as easily on like a table corner

or a cabinet or a door handle like that. You know, a big chunky side like that

It would just get caught in everything. But it is kind of remarkable

how it hasn't gotten any thinner since the original one. I have a pile of old iPhones next to me

because I always bring I always have props Let's see them If you can compare it

The original iPhone You know that big chunky boy To the iPhone 5 that came just a few years later Like

It's about a third as a thinner Than the original one Like you know In just five years It lost like 30 of its thickness The Apple Watch is still virtually the same thickness as the original one You know it still kind of plump

You know, if I'm wearing a button-down shirt as I usually am for nine months out of the year in Ohio

because it's just that temperature, like, I can't, I'm just, I can't use the thinner button

on my shirt sleeve because the watch is, like, still thick. Like, there's barely any wiggle room under my sleeve

You know, it's, it's, and I have the smaller Apple Watch. Yeah

It's kind of weird how it hasn't gotten thinner, but. It's the battery, man

I think that's it. I kind of wonder how much thinner they'll actually be able to make it for that reason

because in order to maintain battery life, batteries aren't getting smaller. I know that much

I mean, battery technology hasn't changed in a really long time. They keep making improvements, but even those improvements are modest

and they don't make, they don't make, they don't maintain capacity. when they make the battery is smaller

So I kind of question how much smaller they could actually make this thing

Like if they made it, you know, 10% smaller, I would be like, that's a huge accomplishment

You know, there are a few ways they could do that. You know, they could, it sounds like the redesigned band connector

is going to free up space inside, which we'll get back to, you know, the display technology could get thinner

That is a good point. They actually can't, you know, physically make, cram more energy in the same battery

without a significant, you know, battery technology upgrade. But I'm looking, for, hopefully that happens because the Apple Watch

is still kind of chunky. As we were saying, the German suggests Apple Watch

series 10 might come equipped with a blood pressure sensor for identifying and tracking hypertension

This would be the first new sensor that they added in a while The standard location for measuring blood pressure is the brachial artery and typically involves wrapping an inflatable cuff around the patient upper arm

Blood pressure varies in other parts of the body, so results measured from the wrist

might not be as comparable. Unless Apple plans to include an inflatable watch band

Apple Watch 10 would need to estimate blood pressure with its optical sensors, which seems to be the way that they go

for a lot of these things. using techniques known as I'm not going to say that

BCG and PPG close enough this looks at the rate of flow

in the blood vessel to determine blood pressure it's not as accurate as using a cuff

but it might be good enough to indicate changes in the general trend of the wearer's blood pressure

they did a similar thing with the temperature sensor like the wrist isn't a very good place

to measure the temperature of your whole body you know it's on the farthest end of one of your

extremities but but they measure your overall trend in body temperature for specific medical purposes

It won't tell you if you have a fever or anything. So slightly more useful with more and more sensor

And we've talked about the supposed redesigned band connector that will slide in magnetically maybe

It is a good point that you have there that freeing up that internal space

might have room for a larger battery or at least a wider, skinnier battery for a thinner design

That might, you know, the thing is, if they roll out a new band connector

and they don't have a good reason for obsoleting your entire collection of old watch bands

people are going to be annoyed. But if they have, like, a good reason they can point to, like, ah, we made the watch dramatically thinner

and that's why we made this change, people might be a little more receptive to it