Apple unveils Apple Watch SE 3 with S10 chip and Always-On display

For years, choosing Apple's budget watch meant accepting some painful trade-offs: no Always-On display, sluggish charging, and missing health sensors.

Apple rolled out Apple Watch SE 3, and this time, the company did not hold back. Packed with the flagship S10 chip, it borrows nearly every quality-of-life feature from its pricier siblings. Pre-orders are live today, with devices hitting shelves on Friday, September 19.

Flagship silicon meets an Always-On screen

The headline change is the Always-On display. You no longer have to raise your arm or tap the glass just to glance at the time or check a ping.

Protecting that screen is a custom Ion-X glass that Apple claims is four times more crack-resistant than before, calling it the toughest glass on any smartwatch.

Despite the screen staying on, battery life holds steady at 18 hours. Even better, fast charging is finally here. SE 3 charges up to two times faster than its predecessor: a quick 15-minute top-up yields eight hours of daily use, and 45 minutes gets you to roughly 80 percent.

Under the hood, the S10 chip enables on-device Siri that can log and query health data without touching the cloud. You also get one-handed controls: the double tap pinch gesture to pick up calls or stop timers, and a new wrist flick gesture to dismiss alerts.

On the hardware side, cellular models jump to a more power-efficient 5G modem for faster downloads. The built-in speaker can now play music and podcasts directly, while Voice Isolation keeps your calls clear in noisy areas.

Software-wise, watchOS 26 introduces Liquid Glass aesthetics and Workout Buddy. Powered by Apple Intelligence, it delivers personalized spoken encouragement during runs and workouts based on your pace and heart rate. It launches first in English and requires an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone nearby.

A major health overhaul

The SE line used to lag significantly in personal wellness tracking, but SE 3 closes almost the entire gap.

Apple is debuting a new sleep score feature. Instead of just showing sleep stages, it scores your night based on duration, consistency, and wake-ups, using algorithms refined across five million nights of study data.

Hardware gets a boost with wrist temperature sensing. Using two sensors to offset ambient room temperature, the watch feeds richer data into the Vitals app and unlocks retrospective ovulation estimates for cycle tracking.

There is also a sleep apnea detection algorithm. It tracks respiratory disturbances over a 30-day window and flags consistent signs of moderate to severe conditions. That sits alongside existing core safety tools like Fall Detection, Crash Detection, and Emergency SOS.

Why it matters

If you have been holding on to an aging Apple Watch Series 5 or an older SE, this is the easiest recommendation in years. The two biggest dealbreakers of budget smartwatches—a blank black screen when resting and slow overnight charging—are officially gone.

For the wearable industry, Apple is fundamentally redefining what a $250 entry-level smartwatch looks like. By trickling down the S10 chip, gesture navigation, and 5G, Apple is putting massive pressure on Android competitors who typically reserve responsive chipsets and advanced wellness metrics for premium models.

We think dropping the Always-On gatekeeping is Apple's smartest decision here. Artificially crippling the basic clock function just to upsell people on the Series lineup was always user-hostile. Apple now differentiates its flagships by case materials, screen borders, and specialized sensors instead.

That said, temper your expectations around Apple Intelligence. Workout Buddy sounds cool, but requiring an AI-capable iPhone nearby and launching solely in English limits its immediate utility, especially for kids using SE 3 via Family Setup.