The Apple Watch Series 7 will deliver a massive redesign this year. That’s according to recent leaks that indicated the new wearable will feature a boxier chassis and a slightly increased display size. The new Apple Watch design is the main feature of the Series 7 model, leaks say. The device might also offer better battery life than previous generations and a faster processor. Some of the earliest Apple Watch Series 7 rumors claimed that Apple would introduce a significant health tracking breakthrough this year, blood sugar readings. Reports that followed said Apple had scraped the feature from the 2021 Watch. A brand new story indicates that the Apple Watch 7 might still feature a more sophisticated heart health feature: a blood pressure sensor. But an insider says there’s “no chance” for it to happen.
Separate reports from Nikkei and Bloomberg said earlier this week that Apple had encountered unexpected production issues with the Apple Watch Series 7. Apple and its suppliers and assemblers are supposedly working round the clock to fix the problems. Production delays could lead to launch delays.
Apple will probably unveil the Apple Watch Series 7 during the iPhone 13 event in mid-September. The new wearable should hit stores soon after that, assuming production goes according to schedule.
Nikkei’s report about the purported Apple Watch 7 manufacturing issues mentions the blood pressure sensor.
Apple Watch Series 7’s blood pressure sensor
Nikkei
insists on the complexity of the new Apple Watch Series 7 design in its report. That’s what’s causing the delays. The new Watch is “significantly different” from the previous generations. That’s why assemblers are encountering issues with production. The issues appeared during the test production run, so Apple is working with its partners to iron out the problems before mass production starts.
That’s where Nikkei casually dropped the blood pressure sensor:
The next Apple Watch will come with new features such as blood pressure measurement, they said, which means production involves fitting a greater number of components into a similar size body. The new product must also meet requirements for water-resistance performance, further increasing the engineering and production challenges, the people said.
The report doesn’t explain the blood pressure sensor in greater detail than that. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s report does not list the sensor at all. Separately, Gurman said on Twitter there’s “no chance” for the feature:
no chance
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) August 31, 2021
Like the blood glucose monitoring system, a blood pressure sensor would be a massive addition to the Apple Watch. The wearable already takes heart readings continuously, and some models offer ECG functionality. Allowing users to check their blood pressure with the push of a button could be the kind of must-have feature that would convince even more buyers to get a brand new, premium Apple Watch Series 7.
Samsung added a blood pressure sensor to its Galaxy Watch wearables in early 2021 — this is how it works:
