Is Apple Watch being impacted by screenless wearables?

There was a detail in Mark Gurman's news on Bloomberg yesterday that made me feel nervous. It's not necessarily that Apple is testing a round screen for the Apple Watch, that rumor has actually been floating around for many years. What's strange is that Apple, for the first time since launching its first smartwatch in 2015, is seriously considering a version of its health monitoring device that doesn't have a screen at all. For a company that has always prided itself on the fact that Retina displays, powerful chips, and an app ecosystem are what make a "true smartwatch", this is a move that can be called a U-turn. According to Gurman, Apple's hardware team in Cupertino is testing many directions at the same time: round screens instead of the familiar rounded rectangles, a line of screen-less fitness accessories, and completely new price points at both ends of the segment, from cheaper to much more advanced than the current one. Currently, no direction has been decided, everything is still at the exploratory level, but public exploration of this type, with information leaked out, is a signal of the pressure Apple is under.

A small ring is swallowing the high-end health device market

That pressure has a few specific names, the first being Oura. This Finnish company started selling its first smart ring in 2015, the same year the Apple Watch was born, but for nearly a decade, it was almost invisible to the majority of common users. Then everything changed very quickly. As of September 2025, Oura has sold more than 5.5 million rings. The company's CEO said 2026 revenue is expected to approach the $2 billion mark, and the company is on track to surpass 5 million paid members as soon as the second quarter of 2026, a fourfold increase from the previous two fiscal years. In the smart ring segment, Oura currently holds more than 76% of the global market share according to 2025 data, almost monopolizing a product niche that they created themselves. In May 2026, Oura filed a confidential IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a step to prepare for a listing in which investors valued the company at $11 billion after a $900 million Series E capital round in October.

Oura Ring

Google Fitbit Air I used to have in my hand Besides the two names mentioned above, recently there is also Google Fitbit Air or Garmin CIRCA Smartband. What makes me interesting is that all of these devices go against the entire philosophy that Apple Watch pursued from the beginning: removing the screen, removing notifications, removing the app store, only keeping the sensor and a companion app on the phone. Yet they still grow by three or four digits per year, while the Apple Watch, a product that has sold hundreds of millions of units, must constantly add new features to retain users.

Paradoxically, Apple Watch has never lost on data

This is the part that makes the story not as simple as an "Apple is falling behind" announcement. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple still leads the global smart watch market with 23% market share in 2025, far ahead of Huawei in second place with 17%. In the first quarter of 2026, Apple Watch shipments increased by 21% over the same period, while the entire market only increased by 4%, helping Apple's market share continue to expand. Models like the Apple Watch Series 11 and the more accessible SE 3 are said to be the main driving force in attracting new users. Counterpoint forecasts that the smart watch market will grow about 3% per year through 2030, and Apple is considered to be in a favorable position to maintain, or even expand, its leading position.

According to Counterpoint Research, Apple Watch market share will reach 23% in 2025 and increase sharply in 2026.

And shipments increased by 23% over the same period

Google FitBit Air after 2 weeks of use: compact and lightweight screenless bracelet on your wrist I got my hands on the Google FitBit Air, a "screenless" bracelet from Google, and after two weeks of using it, I want to share a little experience with you guys about a comfortable wearable device, good battery, with good health monitoring capabilities but depends on... Tinhte.vn Actually, there are many people, in the article I shared about Google Fitbit Air, I tried to criticize frankly about not having a screen, about the price or being inferior to wearable devices from Xiami and Huawei, but screenless devices have a great strength in that they focus on health monitoring, without annoying you about notifications, messages and many other things. And that's what these screenless devices are all about.

Google FitBit Air after 2 weeks of use: compact and lightweight screenless bracelet on your wrist

When Eddy Cue took over health and lessons from Oura, Whoop

Another notable detail in related sources is that Eddy Cue, a veteran face of Apple, was recently assigned to be in charge of the company's health segment, and is said to be directly consulting the approaches of Oura and Whoop, two names that a few years ago hardly anyone in Cupertino considered a real counterweight. The fact that a company the size of Apple has to learn from two startups whose revenue scale is only a small fraction of its own shows that this is not about market share, but about redefining what wearable health devices should be.

Eddy Cue played an important role in the success of Apple TV+, and is now in charge of Apple's health sector