Apple announced at WWDC 2022 that the Apple Watch Series 3 will not support watchOS 9. The writing has been on the wall ever since. And it’s now official: Apple has pulled the Series 3 from its web store.
To say this has been a long time coming is an understatement. Smartwatch hardware often begins to fail after three years, and the Series 3 debuted five years ago in 2017. It was the first Apple Watch to feature an LTE connection at the time, which was a huge accomplishment at a time when few smartwatches could make calls straight from the wrist. When the Series 4 debuted a year later, it stayed in the lineup as a $199 entry-level watch. That was likewise the price before Apple deleted it from the store.
Apple made a wise move in this regard. Dropping $400 on the top wristwatch may be unsettling for those who have never had one before. The cheaper Series 3 may have been a “safer” option. However, keeping the Series 3 made less and less sense as time passed, especially once Apple released the Apple Watch SE in 2020. Furthermore, numerous Series 3 users experienced problems upgrading the aged wristwatch to watchOS 7 and watchOS 8.
With the release of the new Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Ultra, there’s just no incentive to acquire a new Series 3. The SE is the new entry-level watch, with the Series 8 taking its position as the “normal” or “midtier” choice. The Ultra is currently the premium model at the top of the list. Apple should have discontinued the Series 3 as soon as WWDC ended, but such are the breaks.
If you possess an Apple Watch Series 3, it could be a good time to think about upgrading.
