The Apple Watch Series 7 Is Getting New Watch Faces to Match Its Bigger Screen

By all accounts, this year’s Apple Watch isn’t just getting an exciting new design, but it will also be sporting a slightly larger screen too. Now it looks like it will also include an expanded selection of new watch faces to take advantage of the bigger and better screen.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirmed last week’s rumour of slightly larger screen sizes, while adding that Apple is also working on bundling “multiple new watch faces” for the larger screens.

This year’s watches will come in 41-millimeter and 45-millimeter sizes, up from 40 and 44 millimeters. I’m told that Apple will bundle multiple new watch faces to take advantage of the bigger screen, including an updated Infograph Modular face. This will be the second time in the Apple Watch’s history that the company has increased the display size, following the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2017.

Mark Gurman

This isn’t entirely surprising, since Apple did the same thing when it introduced the 40mm/44mm screens with the Apple Watch Series 4 back in 2018, but with new display technology in the works, this year’s new faces could be even more significant.

Further, as with the new watch faces for the Series 4, these would be exclusive to the Series 7, as opposed to simply part of the new features coming in watchOS 8.

Improved Always On Display Faces

For one thing, although the Apple Watch Series 5 added an Always On Display, Apple didn’t release any new watch faces that really took advantage of the new display technology. This year, however, watchOS 8 promises to bring some nice enhancements to the Always On Display, with support for more Apple apps and the ability for third-party developers to make better use of it.

This would presumably include third-party complications on watch faces as well, and new watch faces could showcase these in a whole new way.

An Exciting New Display

More significantly, the display isn’t just getting bigger, but it’s also supposed to be getting better, thanks to a new lamination technique that will bring the display closer to the front cover.

In fact, it was Gurman who shared these details earlier this year, suggesting that the new display could appear more like it’s sitting on top of the glass, rather than under it. With the new design, the display is also expected to be almost entirely flat.

If this is accurate, it’s easy to see how Apple may want to showcase this with a whole new array of watch faces that are designed to take advantage of this new look. For example, with a flat screen, watch faces will be able to get right to the very edge for the first time ever.

We expect the screens will be more in line with the look of Apple’s latest iPhone 12 models, which makes sense, since the physical design is supposed to reflect that of the modern iPhones, with flat, squared-off edges and a much thinner bezel around the screen.

The redesign of the Apple Watch Series 7 would actually set a trend that began with the Series 4 three years ago, suggesting that Apple is working on a three-year cycle for major design changes to its wearable.

This new design will likely be the most significant new feature to this year’s Apple Watch, as Gurman has also added that there won’t be any major health upgrades this time around, while also confirming his previous suspicious that the rumoured body-temperature sensor is not coming until “at least next year.”

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]