What Is The Newest Apple Watch, And When Does The Next Model Come Out?

Apple's history of producing innovative products goes back to 1976 when co-founder Steve Wozniak designed and released the Apple I with the goal of making home computers more accessible to average families. When the iPhone debuted in 2007, Apple was worth about $100 billion, but the device's continued popularity over the next decade and a half helped boost the company's value to more than $3 trillion.

Since its introduction in April 2015, the Apple Watch has become another device that's important to Apple's growth. According to Statista, Apple sold 8.3 million watches in that first year and has released a new one every September since then. Sales climbed every year to a peak of $53.9 million in 2022.

The two newest versions of the Apple Watch are the Apple Watch 9 and the rugged and powerful Apple Watch Ultra 2, both of which were introduced on schedule last September but pulled from the market briefly in December. This is due to a patent dispute with Masimo, a medical device maker, that centered mainly around the pulse oximetry technology Apple was using in the latest models.

It's likely — although unconfirmed — that  Apple will keep to its standard upgrade calendar and release a new Apple Watch or two this September. Considering that the naming of each subsequent model has kept mostly to a "previous edition plus one" pattern, it would be surprising if the next release wasn't called the Apple Watch 10. The high-end Ultra line may see its own update to an Ultra 3 version as well.  

It is also possible that further legal entanglements with Masimo could disrupt that timeline. Apple recently hurried to update how its watches took blood oxygen measurements to differentiate its technology from that of Masimo Health, which holds a patent on wearable pulse-ox devices and sells its W1 Sport smartwatch for $549. In that case, some anticipate that the new watch or watches could be unveiled at Apple's Fall event scheduled for the last days of October.