Apple Makes Another Surprise U-Turn For Apple Watch Ultra 3, Report Claims

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a spectacular smartwatch, with a great display, best-ever Apple Watch battery life and amazing build quality. Last week, it was reported by the reliably informative Andrew Williams, here on Forbes, that a future Apple Watch Ultra with a micro LED display was toast. Maybe that’s not the case, after all.

The latest report comes from the5krunner.com, a consistently engaging site with strong opinions and great connections. It gives hope to those who are hoping that microLED screens on wearables are a coming thing.

In fact, it says, recent reports are wide of the mark, saying that the idea that Apple has canned its microLED project is “complete nonsense and doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” pointing out that Apple already has two Watch-sized microLED screens—in the Apple Vision Pro.

Let’s back up here. Why would you want microLED? Isn’t the OLED screen found on every Apple Watch good enough? The site says, “MicroLED technology offers compelling advantages over the current generation of OLED tech namely enhanced brightness, colour accuracy, longevity, and without historic OLED burn-in. Oh, and I almost forgot, with pixel-by-pixel power management the power saving will be significant, although not game-changing. I earlier guesstimated a 10% bump in the Apple Watch’s life if it adopted typical microLED screen tech.”

There will be a microLED smartwatch within two months, the site claims, though not from Apple but “almost certainly Tag Heuer.” It also notes that the stubbornly high price of microLED is one of the problems for now, but that, “The general way in which this tech will hit the market for companies like Apple will firstly be with a small format product ie the Apple Watch/Vision, probably the Apple Watch Ultra 3 (AWU3, 2025) will be next. Other Watches, iPhone and iPADs will follow suit soon after.”

Apple Watch Ultra 3, let’s note, is the very next expected iteration of the Ultra, so I’m intrigued that the reporter isn’t expecting it until 2025. There will be an Apple Watch Series 10, surely, this fall and it will have an updated processor in it. In which case, will Apple continue to sell the Ultra 2 with the current processor then? I’m not sure.

The cancellation of microLED Apple Watch Ultra was down to a potential partnership cancellation with ASM Osram but, as the5krunner points out, “Apple has at least one other supplier ie LG Display. Apple WILL continue with this technology and WILL eventually make a microLED-screened Watch. Other rumours are that the project has been delayed…fine. I’ll go with that in a worst-case scenario, I think something would have slipped out from LG if Apple were already ramping up for production starting now(ish) for a September launch, so a delay makes some sense.”

That’s certainly encouraging. I think we can’t know yet what’s happening this fall, though if there is an Ultra with microLED planned for September, I agree we’d have heard something by now. Personally, I think Apple Watch Ultra 3, with an identical design to the current model, including OLED display, will appear this year. But maybe 2025 is the year of microLED for Apple Watch. Stay tuned.