When the first Apple Watch launched in 2015, it came with a cutting-edge OLED display. On every Apple Watch released, the screen looks rich, detailed and gorgeous. But a new report claims that an upcoming model will switch to an all-new technology, MicroLED.
There’s a sting in the tail, though: it won’t be until 2025.
According to the reliable analyst Ross Young, the first Apple Watch with a MicroLED display will arrive in 2025, with production starting by the end of 2024. It sounds like something which could out-Ultra the Ultra. While Young doesn’t specify the kind of Watch, I suspect it could debut in the Ultra, not least because of the increased brightness MicroLED offers.
MicroLED
MicroLED has been rumored for the Apple Watch for some years. It has significant benefits over OLED, including that increased brightness, which could be especially useful in the Apple Watch Ultra. MicroLED also promises reduced burn-in and, perhaps most important of all, greater power efficiency, which could lead to enhanced battery life.
Release date intrigue
Curiously, Young says that it will arrive in Spring 2025, which would be a break from the fall release schedule the Watch usually follows. While it makes for a pleasant way to match the Spring 2015 release exactly ten years later (Happy birthday, Apple Watch!), it raises several questions.
First, what will happen in fall 2024? If Young’s timeline is right, the Spring 2025 launch seems very unlikely to update a fall 2024 release. Apple has never updated an Apple Watch in less than an annual cadence, and it was 18 months between first Apple Watch and the second.
This again makes me think this will not be a regular Apple Watch, which will almost certainly reach Series 10 in autumn 2024.
Which Ultra might it be?
My guess is that the Ultra, like the Watch SE, will not be updated on an annual basis, at least not at first. Before this report, I’d have guessed Apple Watch Ultra 2 would have landed on wrists in fall 2024, so perhaps Apple will hold off releasing it until the following Spring for that 10th anniversary Watch.
Even if there is an Ultra refresh this year, I’d expect the timeline would mean that Apple Watch Ultra 3 would follow not in fall 2024, but Spring 2025. This feels mighty fast to me, so I still believe we’re looking at Apple Watch Ultra 2 being the model Young is predicting.
Of course, it’s possible that this tech is not aimed at the Ultra at all, and Spring 2025 would add a whole other Watch to the line-up.
But my belief is we will see MicroLED in an Ultra model first, perhaps with the regular Watch following suit in fall 2025 in what would be Apple Watch Series 11.
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