You really shouldn’t buy an Apple Watch this weekend

If you’ve been thinking about treating yourself to a new Apple Watch, you might want to hold off a little longer. There’s nothing wrong with the current Apple Watch line-up available on store shelves, which includes the flagship Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, but something better could be on the way very soon.

Apple has already mailed out invites to its annual September launch event, which will take place on Tuesday September 14, 2021. The Californian company is widely-expected to announce the successors to its iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro range, as well as an all-new Apple Watch.

In previous years, the latest generation of Apple Watch simply replaces the previous entry in the line-up. When the Apple Watch Series 6 arrived, Apple removed the Series 5 from its store shelves worldwide. Better yet, Apple Watch Series 6 started from £379 for the entry-level model, compared with £399 for the Series 5 the year before. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Apple will drop prices again with the launch of the next iteration, purportedly dubbed Series 7, when it arrives.

However, if you’re going to be spending in the region of £300 to £400 on a new smartwatch, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the latest-and-greatest that Apple has to offer.

And all the latest rumours point to the Apple Watch Series 7 being something truly special.

Whispers suggest that Apple will unveil a completely new design – the first major reimagining of the Apple Watch form-factor since its debut back in April 2015. Like the iPad Pro and iPhone 12 series, Apple will seemingly use flat sides on the new Apple Watch. This will give the wearable a more squared-off appearance.

Coupled with the new case design, Apple is taking the opportunity to shrink the borders around the screen and squeeze a larger display onto your wrist. This should make everything from reading text messages, tracking vitals when exercising, and skipping songs a lot easier. The last time that Apple increased the size of the touchscreen on the Apple Watch, it was able to launch a number of new watch face designs with more complications to take advantage of the extra real estate. We’d expect the same treatment this time around too.

Like we saw with the all-new iMac that emerged from the Apple R&D labs, it seems colours are back. After years of muted aluminium finishes, Apple is embracing colour in a big way. The Apple Watch Series 7 is widely-tipped to land with pastel shades of green, baby blue, and red. 

Ultra-wideband support to connect to the FindMy network will also be supported, sources say. That means you’ll be able to track a misplaced Apple Watch Series 7 like the AirTags – with a precise countdown in metres and centimetres as you get closer to the lost device. Larger speakers should make handsfree calls and Siri more useful on the new models too.

The mechanism to switch between bands is believed to be identical to the previous models. While there will undoubtedly be new band colours and designs to coincide with the launch, we’d be very surprised if the new case design was incompatible with your existing collection of sports, loop and leather straps.

Express.co.uk will be in the (virtual) audience at the Apple Event this coming week. So stay tuned for the latest reveals from CEO Tim Cook and co.