The Apple Watch 2, or Apple Watch Series 2 as it’s formally called, is an updated version of the original Apple Watch that debuted in early 2015. Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 2 in the fall of 2016, with official availability for the new wearable computing device starting September 16th, 2016.
Improvements in the Apple Watch 2 Over the Original
The Apple Watch Series 2 offers improved battery life over the original Apple Watch, as well as new built-in GPS support, water-resistance (waterproof at up to 50 meters in depth), an enhanced touchscreen that is twice as bright as the original (with 1,000 nits of brightness), a second-generation dual-core S2 chip processor and upgrade GPU processor, and the new watchOS 3 operating system.
The waterproofing and GPS capabilities in the Apple Watch Series 2 make it a much more versatile wearable computing device for fitness tracking, and expands the Apple Watch’s use to swimming as well as running and biking without needing to carry a smartphone at the same time.
Pairing with iPhone Still Needed with the Apple Watch 2
The Apple Watch 2 does still lack LTE cellular connectivity, though, so it continues to rely on a paired iPhone to provide much of its functionality, including text messages and phone call alerts, iOS notifications and more.
Pricing for the Apple Watch Series 2 is higher than that of the original Apple Watch, starting at $369 and going up to $1,499 for the top-of-the-line Apple Watch Hermes version. Apple announced the original Apple Watch would continue to be sold along with the second-generation version and would carry the name of Apple Watch Series 1. It also shares the same S2 chip processor as the Watch 2.
