Apple Watch celebrates its tenth anniversary with super-sized new screen, faster charging, and titanium case

The refreshed Apple Watch Series 10 lineup is available in three colours of aluminium (Jet Black, Rose Gold, Silver) and all-new titanium — matching the Pro-level iPhone handsets for the first time (Natural, Gold, and Slate). Alongside the new case colours, Apple has launched new straps to refresh the look of its wearable.

In the decade since it was first announced, Apple Watch has not only become the best-selling smartwatch worldwide, but it's now the best-selling watch — even toppling timepiece behemoths like Rolex and Omega.

As well as expanding the size of the screen for this latest refresh, the new Apple Watch Series 10 is also the thinnest case design we've seen from this fitness-focused wearable, which Apple says should make it more comfortable to wear all-day and night.

Standing just 9.7mm tall, it's a reduction of 10% compared to previous versions of the Apple Watch. Sadly, those who wanted to see Apple debut a round display — like a traditional timepiece — will be sorely disappointed with the refreshed design for this latest milestone.

Watch Series 10 isn't just thinner, it's also lighter. Apple had to completely re-engineer the internals to ensure to kept the same functionality in a more compact packaging. The compact new smartwatch design also keeps its waterproof rating, which can withstand fresh and salt water up to depths of 50metres — perfect for those who like to suba-dive, or anyone who suffered from butter-fingers and is likely to drop their Apple Watch into the bath.

Apple has boosted charging, so that 30-minutes on the magnetic charger will refill 80% of the battery life. You'll still need to recharge your Apple Watch Series 10 every 24-hours or so, since there's no week-long battery life to be found on this new model. Instead, Apple is sticking with the same 18-hour battery life estimate as previous models, although this will increase with Low Power Mode, or if you decide to disable the always-on screen, which will now refresh itself every second — rather than every minute on previous generations.

That means you'll now see a ticking seconds hand without raising your wrist to wake the screen.

Apple has added a new clock face to show-off that expansive new OLED screen. It's also added the ability to diagnose Sleep Apnea. The Californian company says 80% of people who suffer from the condition, which causes you to temproarily stop breathing while asleep. Apple is awaiting approval from US regulators, the FDA, as well as bodies in the European Union, UK, and Japan.

To detect this troublesome condition, which some estimate impacts 1 billion people across the planet, Apple Watch monitors small movements of the wrist associated with interruptions in normal respiratory patterns. This data is stored in a new Apple Watch metric called Breathing Disturbances, which can be found in the Health app on your iPhone.

Of course, some of these disturbances wil be normal, but Apple says it's important to track these movements as they can be helpful to understand restfulness of sleep and, when occurring frequently over multiple nights, could be linked to sleep apnea. You'll be able to look over your Breathing Disturbances in the Health app, where everything will be automatically classified as either "elevated" or "not elevated", and can sorted over periods of one-month, six-months, or one-year.

Apple Watch Series 10 can check the temperature of water and measure depth — a feature that promises to be important for swimmers.

Apple has added a built-in Depth app that's specifically designed to easily visible when underwater, displaying the time, current depth, water temperature, duration under water, and maximum depth — with the option to automatically activate as soon as Apple Watch is submerged. With a Series 10 on your wrist, water temperature will be displayed in workout metrics, like Pool Swim and Open Water Swim workouts.

In an effort to keep open-water swimmers safe, watchOS 11 brings a new Tides app. Apple Watch owners will be able to access seven rolling days of forecasted tidal information for coastlines and surf spots around the globe, including information on high and low tides, rising and falling tides, tide height and direction, and sunrise and sunset, all plotted against a timeline.

Apple Watch Series 10 is powered by watchOS 11 out-of-the-box, since this free software update is coming to older Apple Watch models too, so you might not need to upgrade if all you're looking for is the new Tides app.

Doubling-tapping your thumb and forefinger will dismiss notifications, answer a call, control playback, or initiate a quick reply to incoming text messages and emails. Introduced with the Apple Watch Series 9 last year, the feature remains in the new case design for the Series 10.

Apple is bundling 3 months of Apple Fitness+ and Apple Music for free to anyone who purchases an Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Ultra 2, or a new Apple Watch Series 6 or later.

Rounding out the rest of the Apple Watch lineup, while there's no Apple Watch Ultra 3 this year, the Californian company has launched a new black titanium finish to the current-generation Watch Ultra 2. There's a titanium-made millenase loop joining the lineup too — this'll work with all generations of the Apple Watch Ultra.