Apple Watch 7 rumoured to follow iPhone's lead and pack bigger screen into sleeker body

You can’t say Apple doesn’t recycle: if the latest Apple Watch Series 7 leaks are accurate, it’s going to do the same thing with the Apple Watch that it did with the iPhone 12 and make the screen bigger without making the case significantly larger.

According to MacRumors, a leaker with a good track record posted the news to the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The poster, UnclePan, claims that the Apple Watch Series 7 screen sizes will grow by 1mm, taking the sizes from 40mm and 44mm to 41mm and 45mm.

My immediate reaction was to groan, because I thought that would mean losing the ability to use my existing straps. But it seems that Apple intends to keep doing what it’s done since the start by retaining compatibility with existing straps.

And it turns out that that 1mm could be more exciting than you’d expect a millimetre to be.

Watch this space

It’s not obvious by looking at it, but the Apple Watch has got quite big bezels around the screen. You just can’t see them because they blend in so well with the actual display. In the Series 7 the bezels will be smaller, the edges flatter and the case slightly larger, and that means there’ll be considerably more screen area as a result.

Considerably more is relative, of course: we’re still talking millimetres, not inches. But when you consider how small the Apple Watch screens are – they’re 39mm and 45mm diagonally on the 40mm and 44mm versions respectively – even a few more millimetres is a significant increase. 

We’re expecting to see the Series 7 at an Apple Event in September 2021, alongside iPhone 13 and AirPods 3. For Apple fans, next month is going to feel a lot like Christmas.