The Apple Watch SE 3 delivers health, fitness, connectivity, and safety features including sleep score, retrospective ovulation estimates, sleep apnea notifications, and wrist temperature sensing for richer Vitals app data. The entry-level Apple Watch is powered by an S10 chip with an Always-On display, double tap and wrist flick gestures, on-device Siri, and fast charging.
Like the Apple Watch Series 11, Australians are stuck with 4G connectivity while the US models get 5G and LTE. But we do get Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence, new watch faces, and more.
The cover glass is 4x more resistant to cracks than the previous generation, featuring Ion-X (ion-exchanged strengthened) glass, the toughest glass available in a smartwatch. Even with the addition of the Always-On display, Apple Watch SE 3 offers all-day, 18-hour battery life and features fast charging for the first time. Apple Watch SE 3 now charges up to twice as fast as the previous generation. 15 minutes of charging can add up to eight hours of battery for daily use and it can charge to about 80 percent in 45 minutes.
Like the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3 gets sleep score, which helps users understand the quality of their sleep and how to make it more restorative. Additionally, Apple Watch SE 3 offers:
- Wrist temperature sensing, which can provide insight into overall wellbeing and adds to the other key health metrics available in the Vitals app. Apple Watch uses two temperature sensors and an advanced algorithm to compensate for the temperature of a user’s environment.
- Retrospective ovulation estimates, which use wrist temperature data to estimate the likely day of ovulation after it has occurred and improve period predictions, which can be helpful for family planning.
- Sleep apnea notifications, which alert users if they show consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea over a 30-day period. The algorithm analyzes accelerometer data to detect interruptions in regular respiratory patterns that are associated with sleep apnea.
In addition to an Always-On display, the S10 chip allows for faster on-device Siri with the ability to access and log health data. For requests that do not require information from the internet, such as starting a workout or setting a timer, results are delivered faster and more reliably. Apple says on-device processing is private and secure, and now Siri can be used to access data from the Health app for health- and fitness-related queries.
Apple Watch SE 3 also gets double tap and wrist flick gestures allowing users to do more on Apple Watch with one hand. With the double tap gesture, users can simply tap their thumb and index finger together twice to select the primary action in a wide variety of apps and notifications, including opening the Smart Stack, answering and ending calls, viewing and sending a message, pausing or ending a timer, snoozing an alarm, and more. When a user raises their wrist to check a notification or call but isn’t ready to respond, the new wrist flick gesture allows them to quickly turn their wrist over and back to dismiss the notification.
Apple Watch SE 3 allows users to play media, like music or podcasts, directly through its speaker. For Phone or FaceTime audio calls, the S10 chip also powers Voice Isolation to suppress background noise, so a user’s voice sounds crisp and clear on the other end of the line — even in noisy environments.
Pricing and Availability
You can pre-order Apple Watch SE 3 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 19. Apple Watch SE 3 starts at $399.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.