Apple Watch Series 10 was launched at the company’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ launch event on September 9, but Apple didn’t unveil a successor to last year’s Watch Ultra 2. This is in line with a prediction by TF Securities International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who accurately predicted last October that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 won’t be launched by the company in 2024. Similarly, the company is yet to refresh its Apple Watch SE model. The analyst has now suggested a launch timeline for these smartwatches.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kuo says that the Cupertino company will launch the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2025. The Apple Watch SE (2nd Generation) will also be updated, three years after the current-generation model was introduced, according to the analyst.
1. Apple Watch Ultra 3沒有在今年的新產品發佈會出現，這與我約一年前的預測相符。
2. 2025年新款Apple Watch將包括Ultra 3與SE升級版。—
1. Apple Watch Ultra 3 was absent from this year’s media event, which is in line with my prediction from about a year ago.
2. The 2025 new Apple… https://t.co/j457raXTgf— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) September 10, 2024
If Kuo’s latest claim is accurate, then we can expect both the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and third-generation Apple Watch SE to be launched in the third quarter of 2025, which is when the company typically launches new smartwatch and smartphone models. They could arrive alongside the purported iPhone 17 series, which is expected to succeed Apple’s recently launched iPhone 16 lineup.
In October 2023, the analyst predicted that Apple would not launch a successor to the Watch Ultra 2 model, stating that was yet to start development on a new model. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also revised his prediction hours before the launch event on Monday, claiming that Apple would only launch a new colour variant of the Watch Ultra 2.
At the time, Kuo said that if a new Apple Watch Ultra model wasn’t announced in 2024, it could see shipments of the flagship watch decline by as much as 30 percent year-on-year and a drop of 10 percent in total Apple Watch shipments.
This means that the Apple Watch Series 10 is likely to remain the only upgraded smartwatch model from Apple in 2024. The company is also expected to hold a launch event in October for a new Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro models that are all said to be powered by the company’s M4 chips.