Will Series 8 drop the Series 7 green color, shown here?

This is going to be the biggest year ever for Apple Watch, by many accounts. We’re told to expect a new model that may be called Apple Watch Pro, with a different size and design, and it may break a tradition Apple has had in place since the first Watch. A new report claims that the next Watch will have other differences, specifically the color.

September 6 update below. This post was first published on September 4, 2022.

But there’s also a more linear successor to the current Apple Watch Series 7 expected. That’s the imaginatively named Apple Watch Series 8, it seems. And the new tweet from leaker ShrimpApplePro has news about a subtle change to the packaging design, and the Watch’s availability.

September 6 update. There are plenty more details of what’s coming in terms of Apple Watch models leaking out like a faulty balloon before the special event on Wednesday, September 7. For a start, renders of Apple Watch Pro that appeared yesterday have now been joined by gorgeous images by the gifted Ian Zelbo and Parker Otolani, as seen on 9to5Mac, which show the Pro in glorious color.

Is this what Apple Watch Pro will look like?

But, just as interestingly, in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the body temperature sensor is coming to Apple Watch Series 8 and will mostly be used for women’s health features related to fertility, with other uses coming later. He also says that the new Apple Watch SE will have the latest S8 chip which will also be found on the Apple Watch Series 8.

In terms of design, by the way, Gurman says the new SE will look like the current one. That’s intriguing because that’s the design which arrived with the Apple Watch Series 4 and I had imagined that the new SE would look like the Series 7. We’ll have to see. The general consensus is that the Series 8 will look identical to the current Series 7, but for the colors, as detailed below. The body temperature sensor for Apple Watch Series 8 will also come to the Apple Watch Pro, but not the new SE, which is in line with Apple’s protocol of only including its most powerful sensors in its most expensive products.

One other update: Gurman had previously said that the straps for previous Apple Watch models or even straps for Apple Watch Series 8 would work with Apple Watch Pro but they wouldn’t fit very well. I found this highly unlikely and very un-Apple. But Gurman has since tweeted that “the new set of bands for the Apple Watch Pro is going to be pretty wide ranging and play into the extreme sports theme. There will also be some pretty info dense faces for fitness metrics.”

That doesn’t quite contradict what he’d previously said but my guess is that Apple will want you to use the new bands on the Apple Watch Pro. We’ll know all soon enough.

The Series 7 comes in five color variants: blue, green, starlight, midnight and PRODUCT(RED). Silver is not available in aluminum Watches, only the stainless steel versions.

But Series 8 aluminum looks like launching in fewer shades: starlight, midnight and PRODUCT(RED) with a possible addition of silver. No green or blue, then.

So, yes, we’re only talking about the aluminum finish here: stainless steel comes in three shades, silver, gold and graphite, plus, for the Hermes edition, space black. The titanium finish for Apple Watch Edition comes in two colors, titanium and space black titanium. Previous rumors have said that the predicted Apple Watch Pro will replace the Edition. We’ll see.

The leak claims that the PRODUCT(RED) shade is new. This seems likely. My understanding is that the colors change every year, including this one. Sometimes warmer, sometimes darker, sometimes pinker but always red enough to be called PRODUCT(RED).

So, it may be that there will be subtle changes to the other colors, too.

We expect Apple Watch Pro to be bigger, but the tweet says that the cases will be the same as now, that is 41mm and 45mm. There’s a typo in the tweet, saying 55m as the largest size, but I think it’s clear what’s meant.

The same leaker followed up with their tweet to say that “little to no shipping delay” is expected as stock is going well. This is good news and tallies with the fact that Apple’s keynote on Wednesday, September 7 is almost a week earlier than many were expecting, which is another sign that the supply chain is going smoothly.

This is a cute little detail. The tear-off seal on the Watch packaging was recently changed from plastic to paper. This year, it will be the same but with more glue so that when the seal is peeled off it will be clearer that the box has been opened.

Well, the good news is there’s not long now until we hear the full details from Apple itself.