Apple, according to an analytical report by Mark Gurman for Bloomberg, is developing a new wearable gadget — a fitness tracker without a traditional screen. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine. The project is at an early stage, but it has already received the support of the company's top management and is intended to compete with minimalist health-monitoring devices, primarily with Whoop and Oura, which over the past few years have attracted millions of users interested in tracking recovery and body metrics without an extra screen on the wrist.
What the device is
The gadget's main feature is the complete absence of a familiar glass display, notification system, media player, and apps. Instead of a classic Apple Watch body, the device will be built around a flexible fabric strap into which a compact module with a set of biometric sensors is embedded. The main goal of this solution is to provide continuous monitoring of the body's condition without distracting the user with a screen and without turning the wearable into yet another source of digital noise.
Who is behind the project
According to available information, development is being carried out under the personal patronage of Chairman of the Board Tim Cook and head of the services division Eddie Cue, who in late 2025 took over Apple's health division. Specialists from the team that worked on the hardware part of the Vision headset have been brought into the early engineering project, which indicates the company's desire to expand its line of wearable devices with new form factors and to transfer its accumulated experience in compact electronics and sensors to a new product.
Why Apple is revising its strategy
Despite the fact that Apple holds the leadership in the smartwatch market, the rapid growth in popularity of specialized fitness trackers has forced the company to reconsider its approach. Devices like Whoop and Oura have proven that a significant part of the audience is ready to give up a screen in favor of pure biometric monitoring. In response, Apple has already begun integrating similar features into its own ecosystem: the latest updates to the Health app and new Apple Watch models have received daily readiness-to-train calculations, biological age estimation, and improved around-the-clock heart rate monitoring.
Development stage and timeline
At present, the project is at the stage of creating the first prototypes. According to sources, the final decision on bringing the gadget to market has not yet been made by the company's management, and a possible release is expected no earlier than 2028. Thus, we are facing not an announced product, but an early engineering initiative that may either accelerate or be reconsidered during internal evaluation.
