Apple’s Watch Team Weighs Round Screens, No Screens at All in Biggest Rethink Since Launch

Apple’s industrial design team has spent the past year exploring a “broader rethink” of the Apple Watch, including circular displays, screenless fitness trackers, and new premium and budget tiers, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter on Bloomberg.

The review comes as competition grows from screenless wearables like Whoop and Google’s Fitbit Air, along with smart rings.

These are the categories that didn’t exist when Apple first shipped the Watch in 2015 with the rectangular design it has never fundamentally departed from since. Nothing is finalized, and any new products remain years away. 

A Design Frozen in Place Since 2015

AppleInsider‘s coverage put the redesign talk in historical context, noting the Apple Watch has kept the same core concept, a square display on a band, through every generation, even as it grew thinner and more rugged in the Ultra line. 

The report also flagged a smaller, nearer-term change worth watching separately: persistent rumors, circulating on and off since 2022, that Apple will introduce a new band attachment method this year.

Millions of users know how easy it is to remove an Apple Watch band, but changing the connector design would make existing straps incompatible with the new model

That detail shows how incremental Apple’s actual near-term plans are, even as the company openly discusses reinventing the product’s fundamental shape further down the road.

Screenless Rivals Forced Apple’s Hand

The redesign push also reflects growing competition from screenless trackers like Whoop and Google’s Fitbit Air, which have gained ground by removing the display Apple has long centred the Watch around. 

GSMArena also reported that Apple is considering new budget smartwatches beyond its SE lineup, suggesting it may be looking to compete more aggressively for price-sensitive buyers, who increasingly have non-Apple options. 

That dual approach mirrors Apple’s strategy with the iPhone and iPad, but signals concern about losing ground at both ends of the market simultaneously rather than just at the high end.. 

Reading the Timing Against Apple’s Own Numbers

What makes this rethink notable isn’t that Apple is considering new form factors, most hardware makers periodically do, but the timing relative to how well Apple Watch is actually performing. 

Shipments rose 21% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, and Apple’s Wearables, Home and Accessories segment posted $7.9 billion in revenue last quarter, per Yahoo. 

Redesigning a growing best-selling wearable suggests Apple sees screenless devices and smart rings as a long-term threat, rather than a fringe trend. 

Gurman’s own comparison, that this could rival the significance of the iPhone’s shift to a foldable design, is a notably large claim for a product line that has otherwise changed only incrementally since 2015.

This suggests Apple sees the current Watch format as approaching the same kind of ceiling the rectangular iPhone eventually hit.

Source: Apple Explores Shaking Up Its Smartwatch for a New Era