Is Apple Ignoring the Apple Watch? Users Bored with Latest Updates!

It has been a while since the Apple Watch received a significant hardware update. While it continues to gain new features through software updates, the Apple Watch has become somewhat mundane for me. Here’s why.

An Often Overlooked Success

Tim Cook often faces criticism for a perceived lack of product sensitivity, not entirely without merit. However, it’s important to acknowledge his role in launching major and popular products like the AirPods and the Apple Watch.

In just a few years, without any prior experience in the watch industry, Apple has become a major player, even challenging long-established leaders. Apple has also been successful in changing habits. Not only has it convinced people to wear smartwatches, but it has also persuaded those who typically didn’t wear watches, especially younger demographics, to start wearing them.

Just look around at people’s wrists everywhere to see how the Apple Watch has become prevalent.

The Apple Watch Was Made for Me

It turns out that I am the perfect target for the Apple Watch. Not only have I been an Apple customer for years, but I also have a great love for watches. I own several and never leave home without one on my wrist. Moreover, I am very drawn to the world of smartwatches. I fondly remember the calculator watches of the 80s…

I backed one of the first modern smartwatches on Kickstarter: the Pebble. I loved it despite its flaws, like its imperfect finish. I particularly appreciated its long battery life and the myriad of different watch faces available.

I also enjoy tracking my daily activity and my (all too infrequent) exercise sessions. That’s why I had purchased many watches for tracking sports activities. The Tomtom Spark, with its screen that’s readable even in direct sunlight, was one of my favorites.

In short, all this to say that I am an ideal candidate for the Apple Watch.

I eventually received an Apple Watch Series 5 as a gift. What drove me to choose it at the time was the fact that I was getting older and wanted a tool to monitor my health a bit more closely. The feature that convinced me, besides the heart monitoring, was that the screen could stay on all the time. It was the first Apple Watch to have this essential feature for me. Before the Series 5, previous versions had their screens off most of the time, primarily to save battery life. You had to move your wrist to activate the screen, and it didn’t always work, becoming frustrating over time.

And Yet, It No Longer Interests Me

Due to its age, my Apple Watch doesn’t last a full workday on a single charge, and it can’t install the latest version of watchOS. Despite this, I hesitate to buy a new one. This hesitation is in stark contrast to other products: I have no qualms about changing my iPhone or my Mac.

Indeed, I’m no longer really attracted to this product. In fact, it no longer appeals to me. I’m somewhat tired of its design, which has become mundane in my eyes, and especially the lack of innovation. I find myself increasingly wearing my old mechanical watches. However, I must admit I miss the vibration of notifications, especially messages, when I’m not wearing the Apple Watch (as well as the timer I use for brewing my morning tea).

The watch aspect of the Apple Watch is ultimately the least appealing to me. So much so that I am looking with interest at the Oura ring, which would allow me to track health similarly to the Apple Watch while wearing a watch that I like (the main thing holding me back from getting the Oura is the monthly subscription…).

The watch faces are also disappointing. Pebble allowed the installation of an infinity of faces offered by the community, which has always been impossible with the Apple Watch.

The watch faces offered by Apple are often very limited and sometimes used as a means of communication, with special faces celebrating this or that cause, rarely for real usefulness. The only face I use is Infograph. Some are pretty, many are unreadable, and others are just perplexing (Memoji?). And why are there dozens of Nike faces, all more or less useless?

Not to mention that Apple has a bad habit of regularly deleting them, and that without reason. My waning interest in the Apple Watch also coincides with declining sales. There was a significant drop in sales between 2022 and 2023, with stagnation for 2024, but still a decline compared to 2022.

A Revival for the 10th Anniversary?

Since its inception, the Apple Watch hasn’t really changed in design. There have been just minor tweaks, such as a larger screen and a thinner case, but it’s hard to tell the difference between two generations at a glance. This is obviously not the case with iPhones, which change design almost every two years.

I think a true redesign, perhaps adopting the square sides of the latest iPhones (as was rumored), could rekindle interest.

For the iPhone’s 10th anniversary, we were treated to a complete, and risky, reimagination of the smartphone interface. Why not do something similar for the Apple Watch? Introduced in September 2014 and available for purchase in April 2015, none of this has been done for the Apple Watch, and that’s a shame.

How to Rekindle Interest in the Apple Watch?

Beyond a redesign, what could rekindle interest in the Apple Watch?

To start: having a longer battery life. Many people choose the Apple Watch Ultra, not because they love big watches and go mountain trail running on weekends, but solely for its multi-day battery life. For this, perhaps including a screen with MicroLED technology, which has been talked about for years and is less energy-intensive, would be necessary.

Next, Apple should finally allow developers to create their own watch faces. This would revive interest in the Apple Watch with the arrival of useful, beautiful, or simply cool watch faces to look at. Of course, there are legal risks, with potential copies of Rolex, Omega, and others, but Apple has the ability to manage this with App Store restrictions. That being said, this issue already exists today… And imagine the marketing possibilities, I can already see ads showcasing the best watch faces, much like the famous iPhone ads featuring There is an app for that.

New features, especially for health, could encourage customers to switch to a new Apple Watch. I am specifically thinking of blood glucose monitoring. Our diabetic friends have to prick themselves several times a day to check their blood sugar levels (or install a system with a subcutaneous sensor). Vincent had shown us how he displayed his blood sugar level on his Apple Watch.

This is a literally vital element in their daily lives. Having a non-invasive blood glucose sensor would not only be a life-changing feature for millions of diabetics, but it would also allow for prevention for those who are not yet diabetic but might become so (or who are without knowing it).

Unfortunately, for now, the only methods recognized for reliable blood sugar monitoring remain the drawing of a blood drop or the use of a subcutaneous sensor. Non-invasive sensors are considered unreliable. If Apple could find a way to create a reliable non-invasive blood glucose sensor for its Apple Watch, it would be a real revolution in the health field. We know they are working on it, but nothing is certain yet.

The other sensor that could be added to the Apple Watch is a blood pressure monitor that measures blood pressure. Again, many people suffer from high blood pressure without knowing it. Such a feature could save lives and improve the daily lives of millions of people.

We can also think about other features. Indeed, many AI-associated objects, like the AI Pin from Humane, require daily wearing. Perhaps the project by Jony Ive and OpenAI could be a sort of pendant that records everything around you to better advise you. We could then consider adding a camera to the Apple Watch so the watch better understands what is happening around us to create new features, knowing that it already has a microphone (and three for the Ultra version).

What are you looking forward to in the new Apple Watch?