All issues thought-about, 2025 was an excellent 12 months for the Apple Watch: we obtained three new fashions, and I gave two of them strongly optimistic critiques. (I haven’t tried the Extremely 3 but, however it’s most likely respectable too, if a bit of cumbersome for my suburban tastes.) It simply wasn’t an thrilling 12 months.
The Collection 11, as wonderful as it’s, options only a few modifications from final 12 months’s Collection 10. And whereas the Apple Watch SE 3 affords a plethora of precious upgrades, they’re new to the SE reasonably than to the entire line. It was a 12 months of smart consolidation, in different phrases, reasonably than headline fireworks.
However that might all change in 2026. After greater than a decade of samey designs and gradual iterative characteristic creep, is Apple lastly able to announce some large information for its smartwatches? We hope so. On this article, half prediction and half want checklist, we define seven bulletins and modifications we will anticipate from the Apple Watch subsequent 12 months.
A correct redesign eventually
The theme of my Apple Watch critiques in 2025–to not point out my small contributions to our year-end awards article–was that the Collection 11 is a terrific smartwatch, however the SE 3 is a greater buy. It merely isn’t price spending an additional $150 on the full-fat mannequin as a result of the finances version is greater than ok for most individuals’s wants.
Apple likes to maximise its revenue margin and is keen on an upsell, so 2026’s mission might be to offer causes to purchase the Collection 12. And the obvious means to do this is to present it a flashy redesign for the primary time within the product’s historical past.
Spherical display? Unlikely. One more button? Can’t see it occurring simply but. However different bodily modifications predicted just a few years again for the once-rumored Apple Watch X, which included a thinner case, a bigger battery, and a brand new magnetic band locking mechanism, could lastly arrive subsequent 12 months. It’d even be fabricated from glass. With the inconvenient rise of the SE threatening Apple’s coffers, the timing couldn’t be higher.
A greater and far brighter display
These Apple Watch X rumors from 2023 additionally included a microLED show, which nonetheless is sensible and would characterize a helpful improve on the present OLED.
microLED means improved coloration constancy, higher energy effectivity, and, going by a idea proven off by Samsung at CES again in February, brightness ranges pushing 4,000 nits. For comparability, the Collection 11 tops out at 2,000 nits and even the Extremely 3 has a most of three,000.
Halyna Kubiv
Apple Intelligence
Over the previous 12 months or so Apple has appeared decided to get its AI platform on each potential gadget–which is how we ended up with the deeply disappointing iPhone 16e scenario. However there are just a few exceptions. One is the baseline iPad; one other is your entire Apple Watch lineup.
As we’ve got reported, it’s extraordinarily doubtless Apple makes the Twelfth-gen iPad AI-ready, and whereas the watch is much less of an apparent slam-dunk, it makes plenty of sense as a moveable AI assistant. And it will make a helpful differentiator for the dearer fashions.
On-board biometrics
I very hardly ever should enter my Apple Watch’s passcode, as a result of my iPhone 17 does such an excellent job as chaperone: its Face ID scanner unlocks the watch, and it stays unlocked as quickly because it stays on my wrist. (And so long as I nonetheless have a pulse, however let’s not take into consideration that an excessive amount of.) Apple is excellent at these sorts of frictionless multi-device integration.
However there are nonetheless the explanation why a fingerprint scanner can be a welcome improve for the Apple Watch in 2026 (most definitely constructed right into a aspect button, however probably below the display). Most clearly there are the occasions once you wish to unlock it however your iPhone isn’t close by; to not point out the long run, by which wearables might want to function as standalone gadgets reasonably than equipment.
Having the ability to give biometric authentication from the watch on a case-by-case foundation may be helpful for Apple Pay and different monetary makes use of, in addition to well being/health apps and personal messaging, corresponding to notifications from locked chats in WhatsApp.
This would possibly all sound like an unlikely want checklist merchandise, however inner code suggests Apple is definitely contemplating Contact ID on the Apple Watch.
Blood glucose monitoring
One other Apple Watch technology means one other spherical of hypothesis about new well being sensors. What’s going to we get in 2026? Prick-less blood glucose monitoring has been rumored for a while (we now perceive analysis was underway again within the Steve Jobs period), and provided that the challenge had reached the “proof of idea” part in 2023, it could lastly be prepared for the massive time subsequent 12 months.
This is able to be a game-changer for watch customers with diabetes, in addition to offering helpful knowledge insights for anybody seeking to enhance their well being and health.
David Worth / Foundry
A 12 months off for the SE
This 12 months, we obtained new fashions in all three Apple Watch traces: Collection, SE, and Extremely. However this isn’t at all times the case. There was no SE in 2021 or 2023, and no SE or Extremely in 2024. The one fixed is the Collection.
With this in thoughts, I feel there’s good cause to anticipate the SE to take a 12 months off in 2026. Proper now, the SE 3 is the Apple Watch to go for. However that can all change in fall 2026 if the Collection 12 turns up with a bunch of recent options (or a brand new design) whereas the SE stays stagnant. Apple used to do one thing related with the baseline and Air editions of the iPad, which might come out at totally different occasions and make one another look much less interesting.
Customized watch faces
I’ll end up with an working system improve thought up by Macworld contributor Mahmoud Itani: a customisation software to allow you to construct your personal watch face.
It at all times frustrates me after I discover a face I like (Flux is a large favourite of mine) then uncover that it doesn’t allow me to make use of the set of issues I depend on… or in Flux’s case, any issues in any respect. Having the ability to mix-and-match visible components, fonts, and issues from varied faces would allow customers to construct the watch expertise they want.
