Apple explores round smartwatch and screenless fitness tracker options

Apple is exploring a round Apple Watch, a screenless fitness tracker and other new directions for the product line as it looks beyond the square-cornered design it has used since the first model. The rethink would mark the biggest visual shift since Apple unveiled the original Watch on Sept. 9, 2014, and put it on sale on April 24, 2015.

The stakes are not just aesthetic. Counterpoint Research said global smartwatch shipments fell 2% year over year in the first quarter of 2025, and its 2024 market tally showed the first annual decline in the category, with China overtaking other countries to become the largest smartwatch market for the first time. Even so, Counterpoint said on Oct. 15, 2025, that Apple Watch Series 10 led North American smartwatch shipments since launch, a sign that Apple still has scale and brand pull even as the category matures.

Apple’s original watch came in 38mm and 42mm sizes. Apple’s support page lists the first-generation 38mm version at 38.6mm by 33.3mm by 10.5mm and 40 grams, while the 42mm model measured 42.0mm by 35.9mm by 10.5mm and weighed 50 grams. Those dimensions underscore how closely Apple tied the device to a compact, rectangular form factor from the start.

A broader redesign would also fit Apple’s recent pattern of revisiting parts of the Watch platform rather than relying on annual cosmetic tweaks. On Aug. 14, 2025, Apple said it would introduce a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some U.S. Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Ultra 2 users through a software update after earlier restrictions tied to the Masimo patent dispute had removed the feature from some U.S. models in early 2024. Bloomberg’s report suggests Apple is testing how far it can push the line beyond incremental updates and whether a new shape or a pared-down fitness device could create a fresh reason to upgrade.

The timing matters because wearables remain a large hardware category even as smartwatch momentum cools. IDC said global wearable device shipments reached 145.7 million units in the first quarter of 2026, up 4.3% from a year earlier. Against that backdrop, a round Watch or a screenless tracker would signal that Apple is no longer treating its smartwatch as a stable design to refine forever, but as a product line that may need a new form to keep buyers moving.