Apple is planning a new flat-edged design and at least one new color for Apple Watch Series 7, according to Jon Prosser on the latest Genius Bar podcast.
Last November, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicated that Apple Watch would get a form factor redesign for release in late 2021.
For the first time on Apple Watch, it may also feature a new green colorway similar to the shade found on AirPods Max or iPad Air
Sounds like Apple Watch Series 7 will be the most significant upgrade since the Series 4 back in 2018. I’ve seen the new design, and I really like it. Falls right in line with Apple’s recent product redesigns like iPad Pro, iPhone 12 and even the new M1 iMac.
MacDailyNews Take: As long as it doesn’t dig into the arm and is at least as comfortable as the very comfortable current Apple Watch Series 6 and earlier, bring it on! A major design change could spur a record number of Apple Watch sales in the upcoming cycle. Plus, a flat-edged design would bring Apple Watch into the current Apple design language seen with the iPad Pro and the new 24-inch iMac (and, presumably, the larger iMac to come).
Looks like this design would make more room for a bigger battery for lo
…longer battery life. I’m already getting more than 48 hours on my Series 6.
I just hope they go along with the flat edge. Hate how all current & past Apple Watch have that curved / bulbous display that can easily be damaged.
What I’d like to see is an easier & more affordable way to repair the display. My 42mm WiFi S3 somehow got dinged and cracked within 9 months, no recollection how & always within a thick case. Never fixed it as it’s ridiculous how much it costs to repair, even for the kit to replace the display ( almost the cost for a new S3 ).
Apple Watches are damaged when you strike them against a surface while wearing it, not by dropping it on its display. A curved display deflects the energy of whacking it against a doorknob for example, while a flat display would absorb the force. Either way the next version needs to be thinner, it’s still as fat as v. 1. Leave it to Apple to give us a unnecessarily thin iMac first.
It looks like a primitive earlier model that the current models evolved from … less sophisticated, easer to make, totally ugly. OK, so diamond-grinding and polishing the ELEGANT curved sapphire lenses for models 4, 5, and 6 must be very time-consuming and expensive. But I have banged my sapphire lens into more door knobs than would seem reasonable and yet it remains flawless and unscratched … absolutely amazing. Perhaps Apple should use that new cheap-looking design for, in fact, a line of cheaper models that could be sold at Wal-Mart, Amazon and other such discount places. Maybe even start selling that cheap-looking design at The Home Depot and Lowes also. If Apple switches to that ridiculous design for all models then the folks at Hodinkee will be laughing their asses off. And Hermés will not be happy. Let’s hope that this is nothing but a terrible rumor …
Does this rendering even show a swappable band?
no it doesn’t, it’s such a bad render that the crown is melting into the screen.
Enough smoke and mirrors. Give us normalized international roaming and connectivity to Air Tag.
It sounds like it would make sense but I still doubt this. The problem is that Apple watch is fat. Fat fat fat. And it has been getting fatter, not thinner.
While round edges hide that fact, flat-edge desing is brutal. They’d need to drop like +30% of the thickness to make it look nice, and that’s improbable when they also want to add bigger battery and add more sensors every year for the next 3-4 years with that desing.