Apple Watch SE rumoured ahead of Time Flies event next week

Apple’s big event on September 15 is called Time Flies for a reason; it’s highly likely the Apple Watch will be a huge part of proceedings.

While Apple is heavily rumoured to be planning an Apple Watch Series 6, a new rumour suggests a lower-cost ‘Apple Watch SE’ could also be revealed during next week’s keynote.

The rumour comes via Jon Prosser, an emerging leaker who’s been very active when it comes to Apple products in 2020. Mostly, his record has been excellent, but not flawless.

He believes the Apple Watch SE (name not confirmed) will be based upon the Apple Watch Series 4 design (meaning thicker bezels) and would not include the ECG feature from the Series 5. Prosser ads it won’t have an always-on display and will be built on the Apple M9 chip.

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There’s said to be 40mm and 44mm options both for the Wi-Fi/GPS and cellular models. According to Prosser, the two forthcoming models are listed as Apple Watch and Apple Watch Pro for engineers, but Prosser is unsure whether those will be the names the watches will be sold under.

Apple is no stranger to offering Apple Watch models cheaper than the flagship rate, but this has been through retaining previous-generation models as part of the line-up. Currently, the Apple Watch Series 3 is the more affordable alternative to the flagship Apple Watch Series 5.

However, launching an iPhone SE-like cheaper option would be a new tactic from Apple and might suggest that the rumoured SE will offer hardware features that couldn’t be accomplished simply by making the Series 5 the cheaper option in the range.

It would be a surprising launch from Apple and a departure from the way it has traditionally done business. However, given the huge success experienced by the iPhone SE 2020, Apple might be eyeing a repeat performance. There is, of course, a psychological difference in buying a brand new product, rather than one that’s been around for 2-3 years already.