Editor’s Desk: Apple Watch Series 7 redesign, watch faces, and more!

Hello hello! I’m back after a much-needed vacation, and let me tell you — doing three (mostly) full days of Disneyland and then going to Las Vegas right after that while you’re about seven months pregnant during one of the hottest weeks in Vegas ever is, well, no easy feat. I survived somehow, and it was definitely nice not to think about work for a full week. But I’m glad to be back because we’re inching ever closer to Apple’s fall event!

We here at iMore are expecting an announcement of an event sometime next week, according to the latest rumor of an iPhone 13 pre-order date of September 17 and launch of September 24. I mean, with those dates, and a usual week or so of analyzing event invitations, then it has to be announced next week, going from past events. But while the iPhone 13 is a given, there has been more stuff circulating the rumor mill this week regarding the Apple Watch Series 7, believe it or not.

First, all of the rumors continue to point towards a major redesign for the Series 7. This means flat edges to go in line with the rest of Apple’s product lineup, and even new 41mm and 45mm sizes. While I have no issue with the current rounded edge design of the best Apple Watches, I am always curious how big redesigns will turn out. After all, the Apple Watch has been using the same design for the past six years — I believe that a new design can help spice things up for something that some could consider growing stale. Plus, with all of the other products (iPhone 12, iPad Air, iPad Pro, iMac) returning to the flat edge design, it just makes sense.

I also think new sizes for the Apple Watch are a welcome change. I always opt for the smaller size of the two because I think the bigger one would look awkward on my smaller wrists, but with flat edges, the 41mm and 45mm sizes would probably mean bigger displays since there are no rounded edges to take into account. This would also mean (hopefully) bigger batteries, which I will most likely end up buying the Series 7 for. My Series 5 is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the battery life has been less-than-stellar lately, so I am considering upgrading just for better battery. After all, it definitely saddens me that there won’t be blood pressure monitoring or other significant health sensors until a future model, and at this point, who knows when we’ll be getting such features? I might as well pick up a new Watch and just enjoy it, right?

And since we’re still on the topic of the Series 7, since it may be getting a bigger display, that means new watch faces but no new case colors. According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, there are three possible new watch faces for everyone, with a new Hermès and Nike faces for those specific models. One of the new watch faces is called “Modular Max,” which will show the time in a digital format and have large complications stacked on top of one another. I was always a fan of the Infograph Modular watch face, so this new one definitely has my attention. I enjoy having as much information on my Apple Watch face as I can get, so this one sounds perfect. I will be a bit sad if there are no new Apple Watch Series 7 colors, though, because I was looking forward to a mint green one. Alas, we can’t have it all, can we?

We’ve gone over plenty of iPhone 13 rumors in recent weeks, but I feel the need to reiterate this one: as much as we want it, we probably aren’t going to get both Face ID and in-screen Touch ID this year. I know, I know — I’m also disappointed, as this has been something I’ve wanted for the past year or two at this point. Maybe one day we can have both Face ID and Touch ID on our iPhones, but we’ll have to be waiting for quite a while.

And while many of us are waiting for new MacBook Pros with M1X chips, that may also need to sit on the back-burner a little bit more because of supply constraints. This would include the rumored 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the next-generation of Apple’s M1 silicon and a host of other features like MagSafe charging, HDMI ports, and SD memory card slots. The rumor simply says that we may not get these at the same time as the iPhone 13 and Apple Watch Series 7, with the latter also experiencing possible delays. Perhaps we’ll be getting another fall event in October for new MacBook Pros. But I’m curious how much better these new M1X chips will be, and perhaps it will be time for me to pick up a new laptop.

Anyways, that’s going to wrap it up for this week. I’m sure we’ll have even more to discuss next time if we are expecting an Apple event in about two weeks.

Until next time,

- Christine Romero-Chan