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.
Apple may finally be ready to change the Watch formula
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.
The Watch could become more than a miniature iPhone
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.
