Excuse the pun, but all of the air at the Steve Jobs Theater at Tuesday’s Apple Event was sucked up by the super-skinny iPhone Air. Not to say that the iPhone 17 Pros, especially in Cosmic Orange, didn’t get their fair share of oglers (it did), but it did feel like many attendees took a quick glance at the new Apple Watches and floated on by to get back to the iPhone Air.
I wasn’t at all surprised by the deflated interest in the three new Apple Watches that were announced. They’re basically internal refreshes to existing designs.
Apple Watch SE 3
The Apple Watch SE 3 is a pretty great value starting at $249, giving you a set of greatest hits features from previous mainline Apple Watches. Notably, the Apple Watch SE 3 finally has an always-on display, allowing you to see the time without having to flick your wrist to light up the screen.
Of course, I couldn’t actually try out features like the new “sleep score” or 5G (with the cellular model), but from a hardware perspective, it’s the same as the Apple Watch SE 3, but with better under-the-hood features. In addition to the new stuff I already mentioned, the Watch SE 3 also adds a more powerful S10 chip, up to 32 hours in low power mode, fast charging, the double-tap gesture, Cycle Tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates, and a few more. You can see a feature comparison between the Watch SE 2 and Watch SE 3 on Apple’s site here.
If there was anything that could have made the Apple Watch SE 3 a little more exciting, it would have been some fresh colors. But Apple is sticking to Midnight (navy) and Starlight (gold-ish) for the smartwatch in two sizes (40mm and 44mm). The rumored candy-colored and plastic SE 3 redesign was false, after all.
Apple Watch Series 11
The Apple Watch Series 11 is not that much different from the Apple Watch Series 10, available in the same 42mm and 46mm case sizes. There’s only one new color and that’s the Space Gray aluminum. Otherwise, you get to choose from the same aluminum and titanium finishes as last year.
Apple says the Ion-X glass is on the Series 11 is 2x more scratch-resistant than on the Series 10. This is also something I couldn’t try out, but greater scratch resistance is always appreciated.
The chipset powering the smartwatch is the same S10 chip found in the Series 10 and the new SE 3. Battery life is higher on Series 11—24 hours versus 18 hours—and you get two extra hours in low power mode (38 hours versus 36 hours). The Series 11 also charges up faster, with 15 minutes providing up to 8 hours of usage.
On my wrist, the Apple Watch Series 11 feels identical to the Series 10. If you think the screens have gotten too big, too bad; they’re still big.
Apple Watch Ultra 3
Similarly, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is a refresh to the internals, with 5G cellular, satellite communications (Emergency SOS via messaging), and longer battery life being the biggest new features. You get the same 49mm titanium design in your choice of the same two colors: natural and black.
The chip has been upgraded from the S9 to the S10—parity with the Apple Watch SE 3 and Series 11. These chips have been pretty much the same for the last few generations of Apple Watches, so it’s not like you’re getting some major bump up in computational performance on your wrist.
Just like the Series 11, the Watch Ultra 3 has longer battery life. Now you get 42 hours versus 36 hours on the Watch Ultra 2. It also supports quicker fast charging (0 to 80% in 45 minutes instead of 1 hour, and 15 minutes of charging gets you up to 12 hours of usage).
I like some of the new style bands for the Watch Ultra 3, but otherwise, Apple’s most rugged smartwatch looks, feels, and works largely the same as before.
If there’s any takeaway after trying out the three new Apple Watches, it’s that Apple’s smartwatches could use a proper revamp. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen soon, but these designs are now several years old. New bands and colors can only prop them up for so long.
I’ll need to actually spend time with the Apple Watches to try out the new sleep score and hypertension monitoring, neither of which could be demoed properly in a packed hands-on area.
