TIME STANDS STILL

Recent Apple Watch buyers won’t covet this year’s models

- SAMANTHA KELLY

Apple Watch Series 11.

Apple’s wearables business has been in a slump, and the company is betting that fresh updates across its entire lineup can help turn things around.

For the first time in three years, Apple has refreshed all three of its smartwatches at once — the budget-friendly SE, the mainstream Series and the flagship Ultra. The Apple Watch Ultra 3, Series 11 and SE 3 land in a market crowded with options from Samsung, Google and Garmin. But the new Apple Watches’ toughest competition might actually be each other.

All three watches share the same $10 processor, 5G support and a baseline set of fitness features. Their differences come down to design, display, battery life and advanced health-tracking tools. The timing matters: Apple Watch shipments have declined as the company has gone longer between refresh cycles and kept to modest hardware tweaks. Last year’s Series 10 brought significant design changes that barely moved the needle for consumers, and Apple skipped refreshing the SE and Ultra altogether.

This year’s hardware is more incremental. None of the new devices are compelling upgrades for people with newer models, but they may tempt first-time buyers or users who've gone years without a trade-in. What's missing is notable: a comprehensive approach to artificial intelligence. Samsung and Google are already weaving generative Al into their wearables, while Apple risks falling behind if it doesn’t bring similar capabilities soon.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 looks almost identical to last year's Ultra 2, with the only design change being a slightly larger screen and 24% narrower borders. In daily use, the difference is barely noticeable, and the company hasn't meaningfully adapted watchOS to take advantage of the extra space. The change mainly brings the Ultra in line with the Series 10's display upgrades.