Apple Watch Series 10 gets redesign and sleep apnea – but no show for SE 3

Apple has dropped the new Apple Watch 10 – but there was no place for a new Watch SE.

The Apple Watch Series 10 received its first redesign since Series 7 in 2021, marking a significant update to the flagship smartwatch.

Apple resisted the temptation to commemorate the Apple Watch’s 10-year anniversary with an “Apple Watch X” moniker but tweaked the design to be larger and thinner.

In depth: Read our full Apple Watch Series 10 review

While t’s hardly a revolution in terms of design, the most notable change is the size. The screen has grown by 30%, leaving room for extra text, a larger keyboard, and easier input. That also means the case size grows again, with the Series 10 coming in 42mm and 46mm case sizes.

An interesting nugget is that the screen size of the Apple Watch 10 46mm ends up being 1% larger than that of the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra.

Apple clearly envisions the future of the Apple Watch as more of a computer on the wrist, and the speaker can now play music and media directly, which wasn’t possible before.

There are two previously unannounced watch faces landing for Apple Watch – with Flux and Reflections designed to make use of the larger screen. Reflections is especially alluring, and shimmers according to wrist movement. It’s one of those classic Apple launch faces that does a better job of showing off the hardware than actually telling the time.

The Series 10 is also 10% thinner, down to 9.7mm.

There are new colors and finishes, including a black aluminum case for the first time. Stainless steel is out, replaced by a carbon-neutral titanium case.

The screen has been upgraded to a ‘wide-angle OLED’ that improves visibility when viewing the screen at an angle. It also enables an always-on low-power display that refreshes every second instead of every minute, allowing you to see a ticking second hand for the first time.

Beyond design changes, there’s one new major health feature: sleep apnea detection.

Rolling out to Series 9 and Ultra 2 as well, the Apple Watch will monitor for breathing disturbances, which will be shown in the Health app. If long-term data indicates a possible sleep apnea condition, the Apple Watch will alert users, much like it does for high/low heart rate. Users can then use this information to start a conversation with their doctor.

Sleep apnea detection

Sleep apnea detection isn’t a new phenomenon, and we’ve seen it on the likes of the Withings ScanWatch 2. But it’s an FDA regulated feature, so true detection of sleep apnea, which includes alerting a user to the possible presence of the condition, is not widespread. Many smartwatches will hint at breathing disturbances to users, but don’t scale the feature to this level. Apple expects FDA approval to land imminently.

While it’s not the sexiest health feature, sleep apnea is a big deal. 80% of sleep apnea suffers don’t know they have the condition, and it can lead to a host of negative health outcomes, from tiredness and fatigue to hypertension and stroke. It’s estimated to affect millions worldwide.

Fitness is also getting a modest upgrade – with focus on snorkelling and other water sports. This is enabled by a new Tide app, which I’m personally very excited about.