Apple may be preparing to give the Apple Watch its biggest redesign in years, but the company appears to be thinking much further ahead than this year’s model. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is considering a broader overhaul of the smartwatch lineup, with plans extending into 2027 and potentially 2028.
The report suggests Apple is looking beyond the incremental upgrades that have defined the Watch in recent years. Gurman says the company has been exploring different screen sizes, display types and even models without screens as it tries to rethink what an Apple Watch should be.
The timing is significant because the Apple Watch has followed a remarkably consistent design formula. Apple launched the original model more than a decade ago with a design and interface that established the basic template for everything that followed. Since then, the company has focused largely on improving durability, health tracking, performance and battery life rather than fundamentally changing the product.
Gurman says the upcoming Series 12 and Ultra 4 are expected to receive more conventional improvements, including a new processor, better software features and potentially a redesigned case option. Apple is also reportedly working on new colours, bands and additional health and fitness features.
The more interesting changes are apparently being considered for later generations. Apple’s industrial design team has been examining different approaches to the smartwatch form factor, including screens with different shapes and potentially even display-free devices. The company is also looking at ways to make the Watch more useful for people who spend more time exercising, reflecting the growing popularity of fitness-focused wearables.
The roadmap could stretch across several generations. Gurman reports that Apple is planning a second-generation version for 2027, followed by a third version as early as 2028. That suggests the company isn’t simply testing one radical redesign but could be laying the groundwork for a longer-term transformation of the product.
That matters because Apple has increasingly positioned the Watch as a health and fitness device rather than simply an iPhone companion. It already handles heart monitoring, sleep tracking, notifications and communications, while Apple’s growing focus on AI could give the device another reason to exist independently.
Gurman notes that Apple sees an opportunity to make its smartwatches more AI-centric as it rolls out a new version of Siri. The company could therefore use the redesign to rethink not just how the Watch looks, but how people interact with it.
For now, though, the radical Watch remains a roadmap project. Apple has not committed to a specific design, and Gurman says the changes could still take years to arrive. But after years of incremental updates, Apple appears to be considering something much more ambitious: not another Apple Watch, but a new idea of what the Apple Watch should be.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.
Samsung's next budget fitness tracker may look a lot like its predecessor. Although the company has yet to share any details about the device, Android Authority has obtained videos showing the Galaxy Fit 4 in three colors, offering a closer look at a wearable that appears to retain the same basic design as the Galaxy Fit 3.
Samsung may be playing it safe with its next fitness band