Despite its way higher price point compared to the SE, the Apple Watch Ultra is more popular, according to CIRP.
Apple Watch SE is not the Most Popular Smartwatch Among Buyers – the Apple Watch Ultra is
The original Apple Watch was released back in 2015, and since then we’ve been seeing the same-ish design every year. Sure, we’ve seen case size increases, the screen going from one edge to the other, but the biggest upgrade has been the Apple Watch Ultra in the lineup. It packs a way larger case size, a unique design, a bigger display and so much more. And it’s expensive, too.
Keeping those things in mind, you’d expect the Apple Watch Ultra to be popular among a niche only, right? Wrong. The Apple Watch Ultra is a very, very popular smartwatch. In fact, if the latest data from CIRP is anything to go by, it had more market share than the Apple Watch SE in the June 2024 quarter.
According to the data collected in the June 2024 quarter, the Apple Watch Ultra commands a 20% market share compared to just 12% of the Apple Watch SE. Do keep in mind that this includes all the variants of the Ultra and SE, not just one particular model. Even still, the Apple Watch Ultra comes out on top, and that’s wild.
At the very top, the Series 9 was the best-selling watch with a whopping 43% share in the market in the same quarter.
You’d expect the Apple Watch SE to be far more popular among buyers, but that’s clearly not the case. People are spending more money on high-end models, including the Series 9.
We do expect Apple to launch a refreshed Apple Watch SE made out of plastic. Not only that, the Apple Watch Series 10 is getting bigger this year, too. Though the design will mostly be the same compared to the Series 9. Apple Watch Ultra 3, on the other hand, might not see a design change at all, although internal hardware upgrades are definitely coming.
