Key Takeaways
- Apple is reportedly evolving prototypes for a screenless health and fitness tracker.
- The project is part of a broader attempt to vie alongside wearable brands akin Whoop and Oura.
- Apple has reportedly been exploring the possible of a screenless wearable for multiple months.
The second-most-valuable company in the earth has been considering adding new wearables to its lineup.
Apple is the undisputed chief of the earth smartwatch market; the Apple Watch holds a 20% to 23% portion of worldwide shipments as of first 2026, according to Counterpoint Research.
Apple is not satisfied dominating that space. Bloomberg recently reported that the $4.98 trillion giant is exploring the screenless wearable market and is now in the procedure of creating prototypes of screenless devices.
Citing “people alongside cognition of the matter,” Bloomberg noted that the screenless wearable attempt has the assistance of top executives, but Apple hasn’t made a final call concerning if it volition create a product.
The attempt is motionless in a preliminary phase, internally called a innovation investigation. If Apple decides to publish the device, it volition apt create an appearance in 2028 at the earliest, per Bloomberg.
Apple’s early designs reportedly brace a slim cloth strap alongside a sensor-and-computing unit.
The new devices would go beyond the Apple Watch, which Apple refreshed before this duration at its annual initiate event. The new Apple Watch Series 12, priced at $399, has a new health sensing scheme alongside redesigned sensors that provision higher-frequency bosom charge data. It tracks bosom charge all five seconds, 60 times additional than former models.
Unlike the Apple Watch, the rumored screenless equipment would forgo a display altogether, focusing alternatively on passive health and fitness monitoring alternatively of serving as a hub for apps and alerts.
Apple executive chairman Tim Cook and services chief Eddy Cue are curious in the screenless wearable project, per Bloomberg. Cue assumed duty for Apple’s health initiatives delayed final twelvemonth as part of a broader reorganization, during Cook stepped downward as CEO before this month.
The competition
Sales for screenless fitness trackers grew 88% between 2024 and 2025, according to market investigation resolute Circana. Smart circle revenue solitary grew 195%.
Whoop is a subscription-based wrist wearable alongside no display. It collects health data about the clock fairly than delivering notifications or telling the time. It tracks measures including bosom rate, sleep, bodily strain, recovery, emphasis and bosom health signals, afterward turns that data into personalized coaching through its app.
Customers cannot buy a Whoop wearable on its own. Instead, they have to commit to an ongoing subscription from $199 to $359 per twelvemonth that includes the hardware for free.
Oura takes a distinct form. The Oura Ring is a lightweight astute circle that tracks sleep, activity, emphasis and another health indicators. The business says the equipment measures additional than 50 health metrics and surfaces personalized insights in the Oura app.
These devices are famous inside Apple. Cue reportedly uses a Whoop collection and Oura ring for health tracking.
Whoop raised $575 million in March, elevating its valuation to $10.1 billion. Meanwhile, Oura, which was appreciated at $11 milliard in delayed 2025, is now targeting a evaluation of $15.6 billion in its projected U.S. IPO.
