Apple could release an extreme sports version of its smartwatch this September, according to a new report.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, a prolific Apple watcher, has reported that Apple is prepping a bigger, tougher version of its smartwatch for extreme sports fans. If this seems familiar, it’s because we’ve been reporting rumors of a ‘rugged’ Apple Watch for some time.
Gurman himself revealed the existence of a rugged Apple Watch back in March 2021, and then again in December after it was a no-show at Apple’s September 2021 launch. The only detail was it would be rated for ‘high velocity water’, but the latest rumor offers more information.
The Apple Watch extreme sports version could boast a 2-inch display – 7% larger than the 1.9-inch one in the larger Watch Series 7 45mm – with a resolution of 410 x 502.
And according to German, the bigger case could also contain a larger battery, aimed at endurance athletes. At present the Apple Watch Series 7 can struggle to make it through very long distance workouts, when all the sensors are turned on – and it's no friend of ultrarunners or hikers.
There’s no detail on what else to expect – but we’d believe that a top WR50 or WR100 rating with diving level standards (something we’ve recently seen on the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro) would be a no-brainer.
Apple has made great strides in making the Apple Watch a great workout partner – and targeted runners in the latest watch OS 9 update.
But there’s room to rival the likes of Garmin and Suunto for water sports, surfing, and outdoor adventures.
And we’re fascinated to see what new features Apple could add – and bring data such as wind, tide and mapping/waypoint tracking to its smartwatch.
Things are shaping up to be mighty eventful this fall with the Galaxy Watch 5 and Google Pixel Watch all touted for launch.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.