Apple Watch SE 2025: Striking New Design May Never Happen
This fall, Apple is expected to launch its next Apple Watch. But unlike in 2024, it's thought that alongside Apple Watch Series 11, we'll also see a third Apple Watch Ultra and a new Apple Watch SE. Except the new SE may now be in doubt.
Apple Watch SE, you'll know, is the most affordable of Apple's smartwatches, and in each generation—the current model is the second-gen SE—it has taken a design from an earlier Apple Watch and added a contemporary processor.
But a persistent rumor has suggested that the next Apple Watch SE would have an entirely original design. Perhaps this will mean a new name, as the latest entry-level iPhone turned out to be not the iPhone SE but the iPhone 16e.
In the case of the Watch, the design hinges on a new material for the case, replacing the current aluminum frame around the glass with a plastic one. The idea is that the shift in materials would bring down the cost and mean that Apple, for the first time, would release an Apple Watch for less than the $249 cost of the current Apple Watch SE.
However, in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman casts doubt on the enterprise. 'The redesigned, plastic Apple Watch SE I've written about is also in serious jeopardy. The design team doesn't like the look, and the operations team is finding it difficult to make the casing materially cheaper than the current aluminum chassis.'
A few things to unpack here. It was always going to be hard, I'd suggest, to make an Apple Watch look as classy in plastic as aluminum—although if any company could do it, it would probably be Apple. But the benefits in making the Watch jauntily colorful, for instance, could be outweighed by a result that looks, well, childish.
And while the look is key to the design team, Gurman's last point is paramount: if plastic isn't cheaper than aluminum, then what's the point?
Here's the thing: when Apple makes a more affordable version of one of its products, it always still looks classy. HomePod mini is a great example of that.
I'd be surprised if Apple would sacrifice a good design for the sake of dropping the price.
All of which suggests that this fall's Apple Watch SE may not be any cheaper than the model it replaces, but will still be made of aluminum, which I'd say is a good thing.
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