The Vintage Apple Watch SE 2

For years I have been struggling with the Apple Watch concept. With the Series 4 it’s because a hairline fracture killed the touch screen functionality. That’s why I got an SE, and eventually the SE 2. Now, with both of these the screen survived, and with the SE 2 I got the battery replaced so it is good for another two to four years.

The Apple Watch SE 2 is one of the cheapest Apple Watches. I wanted to keep the ecosystem, without paying excessively for it. The battery replacement saved my SE2 because the battery was down to 78 percent health. The entire watch was replaced.

The reason for which I wouldn’t pay for a battery replacement with an Apple watch is that it is abandoned quite fast. If you have a Garmin Instinct, or a Suunto Ambit 2, or a casio, it will work, until the battery is dead, and in some cases the battery is easy to replace and you’re good for a few more years.

With the Apple Watch ecosystem they’re so busy coming out with new watches that they have a mess of watches to support. They’re abandoning six old watches, to focus on the six newer watches.

On paper this makes sense. new hard ware is far more capable than old hardware. At the same time this is precisely why Apple should be treated as a “recycle” product, rather than a premium product. On the one hand Apple encourage you to buy Apple Care+ and when you get the battery replaced they encourage you to get the 3 CHF per month Apple Care option. If planned obsolence is so quick, then this gives all the more reason not to go for Apple in the first place. It also warrants not getting the Apple Care+ option, and then the Apple Care+ monthly option, since the device is already abandoned.

A Clear Signal for App Developers

The biggest change will be for app developers. At first vintage devices and current devices will be equal, but as more time and effort shifts towards supporting WatchOS27 so WatchOS26 and older will be abandoned and grow stale. At this point if Strava and other apps are no longer supported, then the push to upgrade will be felt.

In theory the push to upgrade will be in a year or two, not today.

Moving Forward

If there is one lesson to be learned from this it is that if you buy an Apple Watch once it has come down in price, don’t get Apple Care + or other warranty options because the device will be made obsolete within two or three years of you buying the device. This means that the battery swap is free, and you get a refurbished device, but now, in 2026, in year three of my owning the watch, it is obsolete.

The AI Catalyst

The reason for this accelerated redundancy of hardware is AI. Those devices that have neural engines survive, and those that do not are dumped ahead of schedule. The SE 2nd Generation watch, was a “cheaper model” but the Apple Watch Ultra was not, and it is being sacrificed for AI. Either that or those that had the original have upgraded.