The Apple Watch 9 might underwhelm – apart from one key upgrade

What can we expect from the Apple Watch 9? Not much in terms of upgrades apart from a quite significant performance boost, according to the latest leak, so you might want to adjust your expectations accordingly.

Information posted by a tipster on Chinese social media site Weibo and reported by MacRumors says that the Apple Watch 9 will be “basically unchanged” compared with the previous version of the wearable, bar a processor upgrade.

We’ve previously covered that processor upgrade: the rumors are that the S9 chipset fitted inside the Apple Watch 9 is going to be substantially faster than the S8, the S7, and the S6 that came before it. All those earlier processors have offered similar performance levels.

A better and more efficient processor of course means better battery life too, which is something else we can look forward to. Apparently the new processor will be based on the Apple A15 chip, introduced on the iPhone 13 back in 2021.

Stick to what you know

Besides the processor, it looks like there won’t be any major changes from the Apple Watch 8 – which itself was a rather incremental upgrade from the watch that came before that. Slow and steady seems to be the approach from Apple here.

There’s always the chance of new watch faces, new straps, and new colors however. Just a few days ago we heard a rumor that the Apple Watch 9 would come in a new pink shade – perhaps inspired by the recent Barbie movie (or perhaps not).

As for when we might see the Apple Watch 9, it looks likely to launch next month alongside the iPhone 15 series of phones. A date of September 13 has been suggested for the unveiling, but we’re yet to get confirmation of that.

There’s also been talk that we might see an iPad mini as well, so it could be a big day for Apple and new Apple products. We will of course be covering the event live – and will bring you our thoughts on the Apple Watch 9 as soon as we can.