After another year of extremely minimal upgrades to the Apple Watch, all eyes are on next year’s 10th anniversary for the first major redesign. And a new rumor adds further evidence that another is coming.
According to (formerly Twitter), the next generation of the Apple Watch features “completely redesigned” strap connectors. They claim that reports that the old bands won’t work with the new model are “100% accurate.” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously reported that the 2024 Apple Watch would have a new magnetic band connector and a thinner design that would be incompatible with older bands.
Apple has supported bands dating back to the original Apple Watch: 41mm watches work with 40mm and 38mm bands, and 45mm watches can use 42mm, 44mm, and 49mm. So it would be understandable to change them now, although it is still a big problem. Apple will likely sell many existing bands in the new format and will also sell older bands for at least a year or two.
Kosutami says Apple is changing the bands because “the current connectors take up a lot of space,” which seems to indicate that a redesign is also in the works. In his recent 2024 preview, Gurman claimed that Apple is “planning at least one model with a new look” after previously detailing the changes coming to the Series X. So it certainly looks like 2024 will finally bring a truly new Apple Watch .
