At first, you could easily put that down to the new ceramic version or the way Apple has photographed the watch. But the regular aluminium and titanium models have changed as well.

The case is wider

Let’s look at the published specs.

Apple Watch Series 11 measures 46 x 39 x 9.7 mm in the larger size and 42 x 36 x 9.7 mm in the smaller one. Series 12 keeps the same height and depth, but the aluminium and titanium versions are now 40 mm and 37 mm wide respectively.

So both Series 12 sizes have gained 1 mm in width. That is a small change, but on a watch it is enough to make the border around the screen look noticeably wider.

The display resolution has not changed. The 46 mm Series 11 and Series 12 both use a 416 x 496 pixel display, while the smaller versions remain at 374 x 446 pixels.

Apple also lists both generations at 326 pixels per inch. That points to the active display remaining essentially the same physical size while the case around it has become wider.

The difference is easiest to spot with a bright watch face. Dark OLED backgrounds disguise the bezel much more effectively, while white or colourful faces make the edge of the screen obvious.

Apple’s display figures complicate things

There is one slightly confusing detail in Apple’s specifications. The Series 11 specs list a display area of 1,220 square millimetres for the 46 mm model and 989 square millimetres for the 42 mm version.

The Series 12 specs instead give figures of 1,196 and 970 square millimetres. Read literally, that would suggest the Series 12 display has actually become smaller.

Apple’s own Watch comparison page tells a different story. It now lists Series 11 with the same 1,196 and 970 square millimetre figures as Series 12, which conflicts with the dedicated Series 11 specifications page.

The unchanged resolution and identical 326 ppi figure also make an actual reduction in display size unlikely. The most likely explanation is that Apple has changed how it reports display area, or one of the Series 11 pages is using an older measurement.

So this does not look like Apple shrinking the Series 12 screen. It looks more like the same basic display sitting inside a slightly wider case.

The ceramic version goes a little further

The ceramic Series 12 has different dimensions again. The 46 mm ceramic version measures 47 x 41 x 9.85 mm, compared with 46 x 40 x 9.7 mm for the aluminium and titanium versions. That makes the bezel difference particularly noticeable on ceramic.

For most buyers, this probably will not be a major reason to choose one generation over the other. Our Apple Watch Series 12 vs Series 11 comparison covers the larger differences between the two watches.

Still, it is a curious move after several generations of Apple gradually pushing the display closer to the edges. Series 12 appears to take a small step in the other direction, even though the usable screen itself seems to be effectively unchanged.

The post Apple Watch Series 12 bezels are bigger and users have noticed appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

The Forerunner 70 is the better deal

The Forerunner 70 currently has the larger percentage discount. The Forerunner 170 is also below its original price, so it is worth checking both before buying.

As we covered when Garmin launched the Forerunner 70, this is no longer a particularly basic entry-level running watch. Garmin has pushed a lot of its training software down into the cheaper model.

It has a 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, built-in GPS and up to 13 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. You also get Training Readiness, Training Status, wrist-based running power and running dynamics.

That means the Forerunner 70 already covers most of what many runners will actually use. Getting it below its launch price makes the argument for moving further up Garmin’s range a little harder.

What you get with the Forerunner 170

The Forerunner 170 shares a lot with the cheaper watch, but adds a few useful extras. We went through the changes in our Forerunner 170 vs Forerunner 165 comparison.

The main additions over the Forerunner 70 include a barometric altimeter, Garmin Pay and some extra cycling features. There is also a Forerunner 170 Music version if you want onboard music storage.

So the choice between the two is fairly simple. The Forerunner 70 gives you most of Garmin’s core running and recovery tools, while the 170 makes more sense if you specifically want those extra hardware and everyday features.

Garmin’s Birthday Sale is also live

There is quite a bit of Garmin discounting beyond these two. The company is currently running its Birthday Sale, with reductions across a much wider selection of watches and other devices.

Several Fenix 8 versions are $150 cheaper, so there are some much large reductions once you move further up Garmin’s range. Enduro 3 gets this same discount.

The Venu X1 is another one worth looking at. Garmin has knocked $100 off the slim 2-inch AMOLED watch, bringing it down from its normal $659.99 price.

There are discounts on more mainstream Garmin watches too. The Venu 4 gets a $50 reduction, while the Vivoactive 6 is $70 cheaper during the promotion. Venu 3 is a whopping $150 off.

So there are two quite different Garmin sales worth watching right now. We have the first proper discounts on the new Forerunner 70 and 170. At the same time there’s a much broader Garmin promotion with some fairly substantial reductions across the range.

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Under the hood, HealthKit also adds RMSSD alongside Apple’s existing SDNN metric. That helps explain why Apple is treating the two readings separately.

HealthKit points to RMSSD

Apple Watch has historically stored HRV in HealthKit as SDNN. Apple’s developer documentation describes SDNN as the standard deviation of the intervals between normal heartbeats, but HealthKit now includes a second type called heartRateVariabilityRMSSD.

The company has added native RMSSD support just as Series 12 and Ultra 4 introduce Recovery HRV. Meanwhile, the existing HRV measurement remains available as Overall HRV.

Apple has not explicitly confirmed that Recovery HRV equals RMSSD and Overall HRV equals SDNN. That mapping therefore remains an interpretation, but it fits with how the two calculations are described.

RMSSD looks at changes between consecutive heartbeat intervals and is particularly useful for tracking short-term changes in autonomic activity. That makes it well suited to recovery tracking, where the useful question is usually whether today’s HRV has moved away from your own normal level.

SDNN measures variability differently. It looks at the overall spread of normal heartbeat intervals during a measurement period. It remains useful, but the result depends heavily on how and for how long HRV is measured.

That distinction explains Apple’s new terminology. Recovery HRV gives Apple a metric specifically suited to short-term recovery, while Overall HRV retains the broader HRV measurement Apple Watch users already know.

Apple is also measuring HRV far more often

This is not only a change in calculation. Series 12 and Ultra 4 can measure HRV as often as every five minutes, which Apple says is up to 24 times more frequently than before.

That is a major shift from the relatively sparse HRV readings of previous Apple Watches. Heart rate itself is now measured every five seconds throughout the day, giving Apple much denser data for Vitals and its new Readiness score.

We covered the hardware changes in our Apple Watch Series 12 launch story. The higher sampling rate also helps explain why Readiness is limited to Series 12 and Ultra 4, rather than arriving on older watches through watchOS 27.

More frequent sampling matters because HRV can move considerably depending on sleep, training, stress, illness and time of day. A denser stream of measurements gives Apple much more information from which to identify changes against someone’s normal range.

Overall HRV still needs explaining

Recovery HRV is the easier of the two to understand. Apple compares it with your own baseline and uses it to identify day-to-day changes in stress and recovery.

Overall HRV is less straightforward. Apple says it is better for broader health and cardiovascular insights, but HRV remains highly individual and SDNN in particular depends strongly on measurement duration.

We also do not yet know exactly how Apple creates the Overall HRV value from measurements taken throughout the day. Apple has not explained whether it averages readings, selects particular periods or processes them in some other way.

Those details should become clearer when watchOS 27 reaches users. What we already know is that Apple Watch is moving from one generic HRV measurement to two HRV variants, while HealthKit gains RMSSD alongside SDNN and the watches collect HRV far more frequently.

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There is more here than a few feature flags

For Blood Pressure Trends and Insulin Resistance Trends, Google Health already contains dedicated routes, onboarding components and chart handling. There are also separate states for when the app has no trend data to display, including specific messages for no blood pressure trends data and no insulin resistance trends data.

That does not tell us anything new about how the two features work, and Google has already explained that publicly. What it does tell us is that the app is prepared to take users through setup, receive the resulting data and display it once the features become available.

This is particularly relevant for Fitbit Air because so much of the experience happens on the phone rather than the wearable itself. As we noted in our Fitbit Air review, the screenless tracker depends on Google Health much more heavily than a conventional smartwatch.

Sleep Breathing Quality reveals a bit more

Sleep Breathing Quality is where the APK actually gives us some information Google did not spell out in its announcement. The app defines four Sleep Breathing Quality levels, HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW and VERY_LOW.

Google had already said users would get a daily view of how much of their sleep was spent in optimal breathing, followed by a longer-term monthly assessment. It had not explained that the app would also categorise breathing quality using these four levels.

There is also more detail on how Google Health Coach fits in. One piece of text says Coach insights can cover factors ranging from sleeping on your back to having a drink too close to sleep, while another says daily breathing insights can feed into deeper trend analysis and recommendations for better sleep.

That gives us a slightly clearer picture of the feature. Sleep Breathing Quality will not simply drop another number into the Health tab. Google is preparing explanatory and coaching elements around the result as well.

By the end of this month?

The company’s device comparison page lists Blood Pressure Trends, Insulin Resistance Trends and Sleep Breathing Quality for September 2026. The Fitbit Air product page, on the other hand, still says “coming soon”.

Whether Google still plans another app update before launch is impossible to tell from the APK alone. But the user-facing pieces we found do not appear to be waiting for a future build.

APK teardown note

This article is based on an APK teardown. Code found inside an app can reveal features or devices that are under development, but there is no guarantee they will appear in a future public release.

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This is one of those little spec-sheet changes that Apple did not mention during the launch. The new Apple Watch Ultra 4 still has precision dual-frequency GPS, but Apple now lists support for GPS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou. GLONASS has disappeared.

Fewer satellites doesn’t automatically mean worse GPS

Apple Watch Ultra 3 has GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou across its L1 and L5 dual-frequency setup. Interestingly, the new Apple Watch Series 12 still supports GLONASS alongside those other satellite systems.

So Apple clearly has not decided to dump GLONASS across the Apple Watch range. This looks like a decision specifically related to the dual-frequency setup used by Ultra 4.

Now, the company is actually claiming Ultra 4 has the “most accurate on-device GPS in a sports watch”, based on its own testing against other dual-frequency sports watches. That would be a pretty strange claim to make if removing GLONASS noticeably hurt positioning.

More satellite systems sounds better on paper, but GNSS does not really work on a simple more-is-always-better basis. What matters is the quality of the signals the watch can use, how well the receiver handles them and what the software does with all that data.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

View at Amazon

GLONASS is a slightly awkward fit with modern multi-band receivers. Its traditional signals use a different architecture from GPS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS, which can add extra complexity when combining measurements from different constellations.

Ultra 4 already has access to multiple satellite systems across two frequency bands. In difficult areas such as city streets with tall buildings, getting cleaner measurements from several frequencies can matter more than simply adding another constellation to the list.

That could explain why Apple decided GLONASS was no longer adding enough to justify keeping it in Ultra 4. Apple has not said that directly, though, so for now that remains the most plausible technical explanation.

This probably has little to do with Russia

There is already plenty of speculation that Apple removed GLONASS because it is Russia’s satellite navigation system. That explanation does not fit particularly well with the rest of Apple’s lineup.

If Apple wanted to remove GLONASS for political or geographical reasons, it would be odd for Series 12 to launch at exactly the same time with GLONASS support still intact. The much more obvious difference is that Series 12 uses single-frequency L1 positioning, while Ultra 4 uses a more advanced dual-frequency setup.

GLONASS has historically mattered particularly in Russia, and the country has promoted its use heavily in navigation equipment. But there is no good evidence here that Russia is the reason Apple changed the Ultra.

The fact that the cheaper Series 12 keeps it actually points us in the opposite direction. GLONASS may simply remain useful in that single-frequency configuration while adding less value to Ultra 4.

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The FCC filing showed up on September 10 under FCC ID SZGG8BL6. It does not actually say Google anywhere, and there is no product name, but once you start digging through the test documents, there are quite a few clues about what this thing might be.

The FCC paperwork gives away quite a lot

The applicant is Weifang Goertek Electronics, and G8BL6 is described only as a “Wireless Device”. Not very helpful. The test paperwork, though, gives away quite a bit more.

One report mentions that different straps were tested. Another checks the device under a zero-distance extremity condition. That makes a wrist-worn device the obvious conclusion.

There also seems to be a screen. The FCC e-label can be opened directly on the device through Settings > System > Regulatory Information. That is interesting because Pixel Watch uses the same menu path, while Charge 6 puts regulatory information somewhere else, under Settings > Device Info > Regulatory Info.

The radio setup gives us another clue. G8BL6 supports Bluetooth LE and GNSS, so it appears to have its own satellite positioning rather than relying completely on a phone for location. For now, the FCC authorization only shows Bluetooth LE in the 2.4 GHz band, with no Wi-Fi or cellular listed, which makes it look much simpler than a Pixel Watch.

There is also a charging base in the test setup. ADB version 1.0.39 was used to put the device into engineering modes during testing. This is part of the Android debugging toolkit, so that is another small Google-shaped clue, although it is nowhere near enough to say this runs Wear OS.

The Fitbit Air connection is hard to ignore

Goertek is the other reason this filing stands out. Google’s own regulatory documentation identifies Fitbit Air as model GW9C8 with FCC ID SZGGW9C8, which uses the same SZG grantee code as the new G8BL6 filing.

That does not automatically make G8BL6 another Fitbit. Goertek makes hardware for multiple companies, and nothing in this new filing explicitly identifies Google as the customer. Still, the combination of the Gxxxxx model format, wrist straps, Google-like Settings menu, GNSS and ADB makes this a likely candidate.

It also brings us straight back to the mystery tracker Google showed in its own Pixel advertising last month. That device did not match Fitbit Air, Pixel Watch 5 or any current Fitbit. It had a narrow rectangular display and looked much more like a conventional fitness band.

G8BL6 now gives that idea some actual hardware evidence. We still cannot say the FCC device and the tracker in Google’s ads are the same product, but a screen-equipped wrist wearable with GNSS appearing through the same FCC grantee used for Fitbit Air certainly gives us a much better candidate than we had before.

Charge 7 is the obvious name to throw at it, but that is still a guess. Google has not identified G8BL6, and nothing in the FCC documents contains the Fitbit or Charge names.

There is probably more hiding in the FCC paperwork. The manual and device photos are being kept private until March 9, 2027, so there is a good chance the device will launch before then.

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Fall detection now works throughout the day

Garmin first announced the feature as part of its larger Q3 watch update. At the time, however, regular Venu 4 owners could not install the finished software.

That has now changed. When the watch detects a fall, it can send a message and the wearer’s location to predefined assistance contacts.

The feature can monitor for falls throughout the day or be limited to selected activities. It requires the Venu 4 to remain connected to a compatible smartphone, so it cannot send an alert independently if the phone is left behind.

This is different from Garmin’s existing Incident Detection feature, which is mainly designed around supported outdoor activities. Fall detection extends that safety net beyond a recorded run, ride or walk, making it potentially useful for older wearers and anyone particularly concerned about falling.

There is more here than fall detection

Version 18.30 also brings the “OK Garmin” wake phrase to the Venu 4. Owners can start certain activities, set timers and use other voice commands without first touching the watch.

Runners gain suggested quick workouts based on the time and intensity they choose, while Indoor XC Ski arrives as a new activity profile. Garmin has also improved the flashlight shortcut, reduced false touchscreen unlocks and added more context to the volume controls.

Some of the fixes may be more useful than the headline features. Garmin says the update addresses pace and speed dropouts during interval sessions, resets during free-form strength workouts and missing lap controls in HIIT activities.

There are also fixes for Garmin Coach schedules showing different training days on the watch and in the plan. Problems involving music volume, water ejection and simultaneous audio-prompt installations have been addressed as well.

Worth installing, but not relying on blindly

Version 18.30 is now available to all Venu 4 owners. It should install automatically, or you can find it under Menu, Settings, System and Software Update.

Garmin has not published detailed real-world accuracy figures for the new fall detection system. It is a useful additional safeguard, but it should not be treated as a replacement for a dedicated medical alert device or other emergency arrangements.

The company has also not said whether fall detection will come to other watches. There is no obvious hardware reason it could not, as plenty of recent Garmin models already have motion sensors and phone-connected safety features.

The interesting bit is that the Venu X1 and Forerunner 970 received almost the same software update, but without fall detection. Garmin may be testing it on the Venu 4 first before bringing it to other watches.

Newer models such as the Venu X1, Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8 would be the obvious candidates. For now, though, Garmin has made no promises, and fall detection should still be treated as a backup rather than a replacement for a proper medical alert device.

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The CIRQA Smart Band Pro name is right there

The clearest bit is a Garmin Connect resource called device_tutorial_alarms_message_1. Its text reads: “You can set alarms on your CIRQA Smart Band Pro in the Garmin Connect app.”

That would be interesting enough on its own, but it gets better. The exact same CIRQA Smart Band Pro reference is present in both Garmin Connect 5.28.1 and 5.29, so this is not something that briefly appeared in one release before disappearing.

The next few resources also appear to belong to the same alarm tutorial. They explain that the alarm vibrates the device, that pressing “either button” snoozes it, and that holding “either button” stops it.

Then comes another rather important line. A separate resource in that same group says: “You can set alarms on your CIRQA Smart Band in the Garmin Connect app.”

In other words, Garmin Connect separately names the CIRQA Smart Band Pro and CIRQA Smart Band. That makes the Pro reference harder to write off as Garmin simply attaching the wrong suffix to the existing product.

The standard CIRQA Smart Band launched in July as Garmin’s first screen-free smart band. It has a single side button, and Garmin specifically describes activities as being started by tapping that one button.

The wording inside Garmin Connect therefore does not match the current hardware. “Either button” only really makes sense if Garmin is referring to a device with at least two physical controls.

Audio feedback

Things get more interesting when you look at the surrounding tutorial resources. Garmin Connect contains instructions referring specifically to an “activity button” and a separate “controls button”.

The activity button can apparently start, pause and stop an activity. The controls button provides access to another menu and can be used to hear daily stats.

There is also tutorial text describing volume adjustment. According to the app, the activity button turns the volume up while the controls button turns it down, and another instruction says the user can wait for the volume level to be confirmed.

A separate assistance tutorial says holding the controls button can trigger assistance. Another line says an assistance request can be cancelled by holding either button until the user hears “Canceled”.

The references to volume, hearing daily stats and hearing confirmation messages are particularly interesting. They suggest some form of audio feedback may be involved, although the APK does not tell us whether that means an integrated speaker, another type of audio hardware or something handled through a connected device.

There is an important caveat here. The surrounding tutorial text is not explicitly labelled Pro, but its placement and wording strongly suggest it belongs to the same device flow.

A Pro version of a screenless wearable would need some way of offering more interaction without simply adding a display. Extra buttons plus spoken feedback would be one way Garmin could do it. It all fits.

So what is CIRQA Smart Band Pro?

For now, all we can say with confidence is that Garmin Connect explicitly contains the name “CIRQA Smart Band Pro”. The reference has survived across at least two releases of the app, and Garmin has separately included the normal CIRQA Smart Band name in the same tutorial resource group.

The surrounding code gives us a possible first look at what could make the Pro version different. Two physical buttons look like the strongest clue, while volume controls and spoken status information raise the possibility of some kind of audio feedback.

The latest Garmin Connect 5.29 build also adds new CIRQA-specific device identification code, another sign that Garmin is actively developing the CIRQA side of the app. Makes sense if you are planning to release a Pro version of the band, along with a smart ring.

APK teardown note

This article is based on an APK teardown. Code found inside an app can reveal features or devices that are under development, but there is no guarantee they will appear in a future public release.

The post Garmin app code reveals clues about CIRQA Smart Band Pro appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

That is what makes this a bit odd. Series 11, Series 10, Series 9, Ultra 3 and Ultra 2 are all still supported by watchOS 27, so Apple is not drawing the line at software compatibility.

Readiness is tied to the new health hardware

Apple introduced Readiness as part of the new Health Sensing System in Series 12 and Ultra 4. The score looks at recent activity, training load, vitals and sleep, then gives you a daily score from 0 to 10 along with guidance ranging from Recover to Go For It.

Looks useful enough. It seems Apple is muscling into Whoop territory. So why is this not coming to older watches?

The simple answer is that the company says Series 12 and Ultra 4 use redesigned optical and electrical heart sensors. Larger and more efficient green LEDs allow heart rate to be measured every five seconds throughout the day. HRV can now be measured as often as every five minutes. Which Apple says is 24 times more frequent than before.

Apple separates out Recovery HRV and compares overnight readings against a personal baseline. That gives Readiness a much denser stream of recovery data than older Apple Watches provide, and the score can update during the day as new measurements arrive.

That goes some way towards explaining why Apple has kept the feature on the new hardware. This is not simply a new screen inside watchOS 27, because the underlying sensing system has changed too.

But there is still an awkward question

The thing is, plenty of the data used by Readiness already exists on older Apple Watches. Series 11 can track HRV, heart rate, sleep, training load and overnight vitals. So it is reasonable to wonder whether Apple really needs every part of the new sensor system just to calculate a readiness score.

Apple has not said that an S10-equipped watch is technically incapable of running a simpler version of Readiness. And we’re guessing – it most likely is.

Sure, the new hardware can provide better and more frequent inputs, particularly for HRV and daytime heart rate. But that does not necessarily mean an older watch could not calculate Readiness from less frequent measurements.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

View at Amazon

Of course, this is just our speculation. There may be accuracy or validation requirements behind Apple’s decision that are not obvious from the outside. The company says it has developed the Readiness algorithm using data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study. So it may simply be unwilling to offer the score on watches that cannot produce the data quality or sampling frequency used to validate it.

Series 11 owners have the most reason to be annoyed

Series 9 and Series 10 owners are at least a couple of generations removed from the latest hardware. Gen 11 is different because it was Apple’s flagship standard watch until yesterday. Yet one of the biggest new health features is already unavailable on it.

Our Apple Watch Series 12 vs Series 11 comparison shows why this stands out. Everyday battery life remains 24 hours on both generations. The displays are very similar and both already cover ECG, blood oxygen, temperature, sleep and HRV. But Readiness sits exclusively on Series 12.

It is much the same story for the outdoor models. Ultra 4 adds Readiness and higher-frequency health sensing, while last year’s Ultra 3 misses out despite remaining a very capable watch. Our Ultra 4 vs Ultra 3 comparison also shows that much of the underlying hardware package remains familiar outside the new sensing system and improved battery life.

Apple Watch Series 12

View at Amazon

There is a wider context here too. Apple already caused some frustration earlier this year when watchOS 27 dropped support for Series 8, SE 2 and the original Ultra, so limiting headline features within the supported group creates another layer of fragmentation.

The post Why Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 miss out on Readiness appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

The only thing that is missing at the moment? A screenless Apple wearable.

Apple now covers much of the same ground

Today the company introduced the Series 12 device, along with Watch Ultra 4. And both of these come with some interesting new metrics.

One of these is Readiness. Apple combines activity, training load, vitals and sleep into a daily score, then tells you whether you should Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready or Go For It.

That puts Apple much closer to WHOOP Recovery. The calculations are different, but both are trying to answer the same basic question, how ready is your body to train today?

Apple has also increased how often its latest watches collect some of the data behind that score. Heart rate can now be measured every five seconds, while HRV can be sampled as often as every five minutes. Recovery HRV also looks specifically at overnight readings against your own baseline.

Health Age pushes the overlap further

Apple’s new Health Age feature takes the comparison beyond daily recovery. It uses measurements such as VO2 max, resting heart rate, sleep and HRV to estimate how your health compares with your chronological age.

WHOOP already does something similar through Healthspan. WHOOP Age estimates physiological age, while Pace of Aging tracks whether that number is moving in the right direction.

Apple is also bringing lab testing into the same system. US users will be able to order tests covering more than 50 biomarkers through Apple Health for $119, with results feeding back into the wider health picture.

WHOOP has been building in the same direction with Advanced Labs, also using Quest Diagnostics. The two companies are now competing across recovery, ageing, health trends and lab data, not just workout tracking.

The subscription is the pressure point

WHOOP One costs $199 per year, Peak costs $239 and Life costs $359. Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399, but Apple is not charging an annual fee for Readiness, HRV, sleep tracking or its core health analysis.

That makes the comparison uncomfortable for WHOOP. It does not matter if WHOOP remains better in a few areas if Apple becomes good enough for most people without another yearly bill.

Apple Watch Series 12

View at Amazon

Plenty of users simply want to know how they slept, whether they are recovered and whether today is a good day to push harder. Apple now covers much more of that directly.

WHOOP’s biggest advantage is becoming the hardware

WHOOP still has a very clear strength. It has no screen, lasts more than 14 days and is designed to stay on the body continuously without feeling like another smartwatch.

Apple Watch is still a watch. It has a display, apps, notifications and much shorter battery life, so WHOOP remains a better fit for people who want passive tracking or already wear another watch.

WHOOP also still goes deeper in areas such as behavioural tracking through Journal and muscular load through Strength Trainer. But those are narrower differences than they used to be, especially now that Apple is handling more recovery and health interpretation inside its own software.

That leaves form factor as one of WHOOP’s strongest remaining advantages. And that is where things could get much more interesting.

A screenless Apple wearable would be the real threat

We reported last month that Apple has explored screenless wrist wearables. There is no guarantee one will launch, but the idea makes far more sense now that Apple has built out the software around it.

Apple already has Readiness, Sleep Score, Recovery HRV, training load and Health Age. Most of the software needed for a WHOOP-style product is now there.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

View at Amazon

The missing piece is the hardware. Remove the screen, cut back the smartwatch functions, extend battery life and feed everything into Apple Health, and Apple suddenly has something that competes with WHOOP much more directly.

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