The Return of Ceramic
Physically, the Apple Watch Series 5 is expected to look pretty much the same as the current Series 4. While Apple surprised us last year by making its first-ever design changes to the Apple Watch, increasing the screen sizes to 40mm and 44mm for its new Series 4 version, we’re expecting that Apple will stay the course on this design for at least another year.
That said, one possible minor change that may be in store is the comeback of the ceramic-encased Apple Watch Edition. While the very first Apple Watch Edition was 18-karat gold, by the time Apple released the Apple Watch Series 2 in 2016, it had dropped the ostentatious $10K+ gold version, replacing it instead with a white ceramic body and a $1,299 price tag. This continued through to the Series 3 in 2017, but for whatever reason was dropped from last year’s Series 4 lineup.
However, well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is more often right about these things than not, made the prediction in February that a “new ceramic casing design” will be added, although he had little more to say on the subject, so it’s unclear what it will look like or which models will be included.