Image: Apple and RendersbyIan
Apple leaker Jon Prosser gave us the first look of the new Apple Watch design back in May with the flat edges similar to the iPhone 12 lineup. This new design was later backed up by other leakers like Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Apple Analyst Ming Chi Kuo. 91mobiles even shared images of the leaked CAD files for the new Apple Watch Series 7 with the flat edge design.
All the reliable leakers were agreeing on the new flat edge design for the Apple Watch Series 7 and it led many of us to believe it’s guaranteed to happen. Unfortunately we got nothing close to what the leaks suggested. Just a couple of weeks before the event, Apple ran into a ton of problems trying to mass produce the Apple Watch Series 7. According to Nikkei the new significant design change of the Apple Watch Series 7 caused these issues.
A couple of days before the event, Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo said Apple was able to come up with a solution to fix the mass production issues. Apparently that solution was to get rid of the new design entirely and use the old one from the Series 6.
Apple had to create a new Apple Watch design very quickly. All the display panels for the initial Series 7 design were already made so Apple had to manufacture a larger display that will slightly be raised up to fit the new display panel. They also had to give the Apple Watch chassis more rounded edges so the display panel will fit.
At the Apple Keynote, Apple didn’t mention the new chip on the Apple Watch Series 7 at all. This is because the chip inside the new Series 7 is the old S6 chip from the Series 6 just disguised as the S7 chip. The real S7 chip was rumored to be double sided and was only able to fit the chassis of the new design with flat edges so Apple wasn’t able to include that with the Series 7.
This solution was made so fast that Apple didn’t even give the Apple Watch Series 7 a new model number. The image shown above shows the Apple Watch Series 7 models with the exact same model number as the Apple Watch Series 6 models.
Also at the event, Apple didn’t mention when the Apple Watch Series 7 will exactly be available like all the other devices they unveiled at the event. They just said “Later this Fall”. This is because mass production of the Apple Watch Series 7 hasn’t even started yet and Apple has no idea when they can start rolling them out to customers. The Apple Watch always launched in stores alongside the iPhone so it’s very unlikely for Apple to just release the Apple Watch at a later date.
To summarize, Apple had a lot of issues with manufacturing the initial design of the Apple Watch Series 7 so in order to fix these issues, their solution was to completely scrap the new design all together for the old design with a few modifications. This is why the Apple Watch Series 7 has almost little to no hardware features at all and mostly all of the new features are software related.
It’s unclear if Apple will bring the new flat edge design to the Apple Watch Series 8 next year or if they will just stick to the current design of the Apple Watch Series 7 with the slimmer bezels.
