I've been covering Apple Watch deals for years – This is the one model most people should buy on Black Friday

When it comes to nan best Black Friday deals retired there, nan Apple Watch tin beryllium 1 of nan champion worth plays of nan full month. If you ain an iPhone and want to vastly grow nan experience, getting an Apple Watch is nan adjacent logical step. Entering its tenth twelvemonth connected nan market, nan Apple Watch adds truthful overmuch worth to nan iPhone for its users. You get at-a-glance notifications, media playback controls, turn-by-turn navigation, Apple Wallet paper payments, and more.

In much caller years, Apple has pivoted nan attraction of nan Apple Watch to health, arguably nan wearable’s biggest tie successful 2024. Now your Apple Watch comes pinch bosom complaint monitoring, autumn detection, Emergency SOS, ECG, and moreover devices to way vulnerable diseases for illustration atrial fibrillation.

If you’re successful nan marketplace for your very first Apple Watch, past I’m present to show you that there’s really only 1 exemplary you’ll want to consider. But first, a fewer caveats. If you’re already an Apple Watch user, aliases an early adopter of nan latest and top models, aliases you cognize you emotion nan astir costly tech retired there, this proposal isn’t for you. That’s because I'm astir to urge nan Apple Watch SE arsenic nan strongest Black Friday prime retired location for first-timers.

I’ve been covering Apple and tech for 8 years, earlier that, I utilized to activity for nan company, I was moreover boots-on-the-ground successful nan shop connected time 1 of nan Apple Watch launch. In my opinion, nan Apple Watch SE is not only nan best Black Friday Apple Watch deal, but besides nan champion woody successful fittingness tracking, period. You get a immense chunk of nan Apple Watch acquisition astatine a fraction of nan price, particularly if you tin people 1 complete Black Friday. This year, that’s truer than ever. Here’s why nan Apple Watch SE won’t fto you down.

Apple Watch SE: The eventual taster

The Apple Watch SE boasts a batch of nan things that make nan Apple Watch acquisition great, without immoderate of nan much costly premium features. Starting pinch health, you’ll get bosom complaint and irregular hit notifications, atrial fibrillation tracking, debased cardio fittingness notifications, and autumn detection. You’re only missing retired connected 2 cardinal features, nan ECG app, and humor oxygen. However, if you’ve been paying attention, you mightiness beryllium alert that humor oxygen is nary longer featured successful immoderate of nan best Apple Watch models successful nan U.S. because of a patent dispute, truthful that’s 1 little logic not to take nan SE.

The Apple Watch SE is somewhat smaller than nan different flagship models, nan Series 10 and nan Ultra 2, but that 40mm (or 44mm) lawsuit size mightiness lend itself much readily to kids aliases those pinch slender wrists. It’s sewage a vibrant OLED Retina show pinch 1,000 nits of brightness, arsenic good arsenic slumber tracking, nan caller Vitals app from watchOS 11, and rhythm tracking.

It’s besides water-resistant and swim-proof successful up to 50m of water, and includes captious information features specified arsenic Emergency SOS, emergency calling, and Fall and Crash Detection. The S8 spot lags a small down nan S9 and S10, but astir users won’t announcement immoderate quality astatine all, isolated from possibly erstwhile it comes to futureproofing.

Really, location are very fewer monolithic features that nan Series 10 and Ultra 2 connection complete nan SE. In fact, a ample information of nan value quality tin beryllium attributed to nan much premium materials and design. Usually retailing astatine $249 and $399 respectively, nan prime betwixt an Apple Watch SE and a Series 10 is simply a close-run point astatine RRP. On Black Friday, I’ll wager it’s a no-brainer.

Apple Watch SE: The discount king

Almost each twelvemonth we spot an unbelievable caller lowest-ever value connected nan Apple Watch SE. Right now nan lowest-recorded value is $169.99, but we’d stake plentifulness of money that a caller debased is connected nan measurement for this year’s Black Friday sale.

If you tin find an Apple Watch SE for $159, aliases nan hallowed $150 mark, you’ll person secured yourself nan bargain of nan century.

But what astir nan Apple Watch SE 3? The latest reports bespeak that it’s coming successful 2025, but whether that’s early aliases precocious successful nan year, there’s bully news for prospective buyers. If nan Apple Watch SE 3 is person astatine manus than we think, there’s a bully chance of much generous discounts complete nan adjacent fewer weeks, owing to nan impending motorboat of nan caller model.

However, it nan SE 3 arrives later successful nan twelvemonth alongside iPhone 17, you’ll get a coagulated year’s usage retired of your caller SE earlier it’s supplanted by nan adjacent model. Not that it matters excessively much, however. If you’re successful nan marketplace for your first Apple Watch and considering nan SE, chances are you’re not a serial early adopter who cares astir having nan latest tech.

What astir nan Series 10 and Ultra 2?

None of this is to disparage nan Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, some of which are superb successful their ain right. If you want a spot much zip from nan processor, immoderate futureproofing, and a much vibrant display, nan Apple Watch Series 10 presents a noble replacement to nan SE that is already getting reasonable discounts successful what will beryllium its first Black Friday event.

The Ultra 2 is besides brilliant, but it's very constricted successful entreaty for group who aren’t going to push their watch to nan absolute limit. Unless you’re spending your weekends successful nan ungraded upland biking, hiking, climbing, deep-sea diving, way running, aliases thing other besides, you’ll struggle to recognize nan afloat imaginable of nan Ultra 2, which would beryllium fine, isolated from it costs astir $700, much than 4 times nan costs of an Apple Watch SE.

So if you’re looking to make nan Apple Watch leap for nan first clip successful 2024, Black Friday is nan clip to do it, and nan Apple Watch SE could beryllium nan cleanable iPhone companion you’ve been waiting for. Already bought in? At this price, they besides make awesome gifts for kids aliases older relatives. The Apple Watch SE is presently $189, already a 24% discount, and we expect moreover much savings successful nan weeks ahead.