Apple Watch sales are still falling. Are these wearables just too expensive?

Apple Watch sales have been dropping continually for the last couple of years, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

The market research firm released a new report on Tuesday, May 8, including data from its Global Smartwatch Shipment Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2024. Put simply, Apple suffered a 19 percent decline in Apple Watch shipments year-over-year in 2024. That followed a 10 percent drop in 2023. While there were declines across most regions (aside from India), the North American market in particular recorded significant declines in Apple Watch shipments last year. Given that more than half of all Apple Watch shipments go to this continent, that's not great for Apple.

Counterpoint's report also includes this nugget: Apple Watch sales fell despite the launch of the new Series 10 model in September 2024. As Counterpoint writes, "Q3 2024 was the first time Apple witnessed a YoY shipment decline in a quarter in which a new smartwatch series was also launched."

So, what's going on here?

The one big reason that Counterpoint puts forward to explain all of this has less to do with pricing or device quality than a simple lack of available upgrades for customers. In particular, the lack of a new budget SE model.

Apple didn't release a new Ultra or SE model alongside the Series 10 model last year. And as a pricier flagship, the Ultra only accounts for a small portion of total Apple Watch sales, less than 10 percent. There hasn't been a new Ultra since late 2023, and there hasn't been a new SE since late 2022. For comparison, the new Ultra Watch 2 costs $769 and the Series 10 $399, while the latest SE costs only $249, though it's usually on sale for under $200.

There's no guarantee in today's economically challenging world that simply releasing new Apple Watch SE and Ultra models would totally fix this trend for Apple, but a fresh budget offering couldn't hurt. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported earlier this year that Apple will indeed refresh both of those product lines later this year, so there's that, at least.