Apple Watch Ultra 3, next-gen Apple Watch SE coming in 2025: Kuo

The Apple Watch Series 10 was launched during the company’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ launch event on September 9, but Apple did not unveil a successor to last year’s Watch Ultra 2. This is in line with a prediction from TF Securities International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who correctly predicted in October last year that the company would not launch the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2024. Likewise, the company is yet to refresh its Apple Watch SE model. The analyst has now suggested a launch timeline for these smartwatches.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kuo said the Cupertino company will launch the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2025. The Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) will also be updated, three years after the current-generation model was introduced, the analyst said.

If Kuo’s latest claim turns out to be true, we can expect both the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the third-generation Apple Watch SE to launch in the third quarter of 2025, when the company typically launches new smartwatch and smartphone models. They could launch alongside the rumored iPhone 17 series, which is expected to succeed Apple’s recently launched iPhone 16 series.

In October 2023, the analyst predicted that Apple would not launch a successor to the Watch Ultra 2 model, stating that development on a new model had yet to begin. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also revised his prediction hours before the launch event on Monday, claiming that Apple would only launch a new color variant of the Watch Ultra 2.

Kuo said at the time that if a new Apple Watch Ultra model wasn’t announced in 2024, sales of the flagship could drop as much as 30 percent year-on-year and total Apple Watch sales could fall by 10 percent.

This means the Apple Watch Series 10 will likely remain Apple’s only upgraded smartwatch model in 2024. The company is also expected to hold a launch event in October for a new Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro models, all of which are said to be powered by the company’s M4 chips.