Apple is reportedly planning to bring back the well-liked and sought-after ceramic material option when the Apple Watch Series 12 is announced next month.
The leaker Kosutami (via 9to5Mac) reckons Apple is planning on bringing back the material last used in an Apple Watch Series 5 ‘Edition’ that had a niche fan following, but was ultimately dropped by Apple the following year. The last ‘Edition’ was released way back in 2019. You might even call it retro tech!
The highly-polished version was notorious for its scratch resistance and the attractive and unique all-white design still looked great years after Apple moved on from the more premium material. Apple claimed it was four-times harder than stainless steel and that has contributed to higher prices on the resale market. After all, the material was much fancier than the ceramic your bathroom sink is made of.
The casing, which was manufactured using compressed powder of zirconia and alumina and polished with diamond slurry, was a nice option for those who don’t want to wear metal on their skin for allergy reasons, and was perfect for the clumsier among us who’d otherwise knock and scuff the metallic versions of the watch.
In a post on X, the leaker wrote: “Hell yeah, Ceramic Apple Watch is back. We’ll see it at Series 12.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumblings ceramic might be back on the agenda. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has said it may happen in the next two generations. If Apple does bring it back, it’s likely to cost more than the standard materials which are currently aluminium and aerospace-grade titanium. For example, the Edition version of the Series 5 started at $1,299 while the cheapest aluminium versions began at $399.
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