Apple Unveils Apple Watch Series 10 with the Biggest Display and Thinnest Design Ever
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Ten years ago today, Apple announced the first Apple Watch, forever changing the smartwatch landscape. So, it’s only fitting that it would hold its fall iPhone and Apple Watch event today to launch the Apple Watch Series 10.
While it wasn’t the anniversary spectacular that many expected, this year’s Apple Watch still represents a significant evolution of the design that sets a new tone for the wearable.
As we’ve said before, Apple is a company that prefers to look forward rather than wax nostalgic. Still, it’s hard not to look at its choice of date — the first-ever Monday for an Apple fall event — as anything other than a quiet nod to the wearable, which also served as the opening act for this year’s Glowtime event.
Nevertheless, it’s an evolutionary design, not a revolutionary one. The Apple Watch Series 10 remains familiar to every Apple Watch model that’s come before, with this year’s focus on making it more readable and more comfortable. Here’s what’s new.
A Larger and Brighter Screen
Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, heralded the unveiling of this year’s Apple Watch, noting that one critical factor for the wearable is making the screen as easy to read as possible. Hence, Apple has followed in the footsteps of the Apple Watch Series 7 with another healthy screen boost, giving it 30% more real estate and making it even bigger than the screen on the Apple Watch Ultra.
As we saw with the Series 7 three years ago, this provides an extra line of text in apps like Messages, Mail, and News and makes it even easier to type on the on-screen keyboard introduced in that earlier model.
In expanding the screen, Apple has tried to minimize the bulk of the wearable with a more streamlined design, developing the glass further down the sides and widening the aspect ratio.
The Apple Watch Series 10 also gains a new trick to make the screen more easily readable. While the overall brightness doesn’t appear to have increased, Apple has pioneered a new “wide-angle OLED” that allows each pixel to emit more light at wider angles. Since few folks read their Apple Watch screen straight on, Williams said this makes the screen much brighter during everyday use — up to 40% when viewed from any angle.
The new wide-angle OLED is also more power-efficient, which means the always-on display on the Series 10 can now refresh every second instead of the once-per-minute updates that have been the norm since it was introduced on the Series 5. This means you’ll get a ticking seconds hand even when your wrist is down, making the Apple Watch feel more alive.
Slimmer Than Ever
As Williams pointed out, every millimeter and gram matters for something you wear on your wrist all day, so Apple has worked hard to slim down the Apple Watch Series 10. It now measures only 9.7mm, or 10% thinner than the Series 9, while also reducing its weight by 10%.
Apple accomplished this by miniaturizing the internal components, such as the S10 chip and Digital Crown, while completely reengineering the speaker to be 30% smaller without compromising acoustic performance. As proof of this, Apple has also added the ability to play music and podcasts directly through the Apple Watch speaker without connecting a set of AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones.
The other slimming move was integrating the antennas into the housing on the metal back, removing the layer where they previously lived.
The Return of Jet Black
Apple has resurrected Jet Black from the iPhone 7 era to bring it to the Apple Watch Series 10. It’s the first-ever polished aluminum case for an Apple Watch, and like the iPhone version before it, it uses special polishing techniques that employ silicon nanoparticles, a 30-step anodization process, and a molecularly bonded organic dye.
We imagine it will look stunning, but it remains to be seen whether the Jet Black Apple Watch will be plagued with the same availability problems as the Jet Black iPhone 7. Hopefully not, as it’s the only black version available this year. The other color choices are the more typical Rose Gold and Silver Aluminum.
Titanium Replaces Stainless Steel
While Apple has offered titanium Apple Watches in the past, that was always considered an ultra-premium finish, trading places with others like ceramic across different models. However, this year, titanium arrives as the standard premium finish, replacing stainless steel, which has been the norm since the first Apple Watch went on sale nearly ten years ago.
As with last year’s iPhone 15 Pro lineup, the move to titanium is mainly intended to reduce the wearable’s weight since it’s 20% lighter than stainless steel. However, Apple is going with polished titanium for the Apple Watch while using the same Grade 5 Titanium used in its iPhone Pro models. The aerospace-grade titanium is polished to a “mirror-like” finish in Natural, Gold, and Dark Slate Grey colors. Apple is also adding a new Reflections watch face with a shimmering dial that matches the casing.
Faster Charging
In another move that echoes the Series 7, the new design features a larger, more efficient charging coil that will provide another charging performance boost, allowing the Apple Watch Series 10 to reach an 80% charge in 30 minutes.
When the Apple Watch Series 7 introduced faster charging, a new USB-C fast charger was also required. A new charger came in the box with the Apple Watch, but it also meant slower charging on older accessories until manufacturers updated them for the new standard. Apple hasn’t said whether a similar scenario will play out with the Apple Watch Series 10 or if it will be able to charge faster using Apple Watch chargers made for the Series 7 or later.
Also, when Apple mentioned the larger coil, we got our hopes up that the wearable might be able to charge from a standard Qi charger, but Apple’s executives didn’t say anything about that, and we imagined they would have if it were the case.
Sleep Apnea Detection
As expected, this year’s prominent new health feature for the Apple Watch is Sleep Apnea detection, but the good news is that it won’t be exclusive to this year’s model.
Dr. Sumbal Desai, Apple’s VP of Health, took the virtual stage to present the new feature, noting that it’s a condition that impacts a billion people worldwide, with over 80% of them being undiagnosed.
Contrary to what some had expected, it doesn’t appear that sleep apnea detection will require the blood oxygen sensor to do its thing, so Apple shouldn’t have any problems launching it in the US, where that technology is currently embroiled in a patent dispute. Instead, Desai explained how it uses the accelerometer to monitor breathing disturbances, thanks to an algorithm that applies machine learning against extensive clinical test data. The Apple Watch will analyze these breathing disturbances on a 30-day cycle and notify the wearer if a problem is detected.
The sleep apnea feature is still awaiting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and equivalent regulatory health agencies in other countries, so it may not be available immediately. However, Desai says Apple expects that clearance to arrive soon and plans to launch the feature in over 150 countries once it’s ready. When it launches, it should also come to the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 as part of watchOS 11.
New Water Sports Features
The Apple Watch Series 10 is also gaining new water sports features, bringing over the depth gauge from the Apple Watch Ultra while adding new water temperature monitoring and a Tides app in watchOS 11.
The Depth app will be part of the Apple Watch Series 10 and will launch automatically whenever you’re submerged, while water temperature will show up in the Workout app for pool and open-water swims. While the Apple Watch Ultra is designed for diving, Apple recognizes that the Apple Watch Series 10 is still great for shallow-water activities like snorkeling, and the Oceanic app will also be coming to the Series 10 for that purpose.
The Tides app will provide seven days of information on falling, rising, and high and low tides for coastlines around the world, providing a handy reference for surfers and kayakers to decide when to venture out.
Price and availability
The Apple Watch Series 10 is available for pre-order today from Apple and will arrive in stores next Friday, September 20. It starts at the same $399 for the GPS-only or $499 for the GPS+Cellular model as last year’s Series 9. The aluminum model is available in Jet Black, Rose Gold, and Silver, while the titanium versions are only available in cellular models that start at $699 and come in Natural, Gold, and Slate finishes.
