The device still packs many upgrades and, despite its affordable price, comes with many of the upgrades that the other watches in the lineup include. In many ways, the SE 3 takes the specs of last year's Series 10 and implements them in this affordable smartwatch -- an 18-hour battery life, Sleep Apnea Detection, and its latest chip, the S10.
When I walked into Apple Park last week, there was one thing that I did not have on my bingo card: the $249 Apple Watch SE 3 stealing the show from the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3. But here we are. It's 2025, and the entry-level Apple Watch is the one I'm most excited by. That's because compared to the iterative updates of the Series 11 and Ultra 3, the third-gen SE has gotten a massive, wide-ranging glow-up.