Will the watch have an oxygen sensor, and like the latest watch, be disabled? (I have two watches, the oldest gives me saturation level, but last year’s watch does not.) If so, why continue to pay for a disabled sensor?
Nobody knows. What we know now is that Apple is unable to import a watch to the US that uses Masimo’s patented technology and there has been no news that Apple is developing a different technology that doesn’t infringe on the patent, plus we also know that Apple has appealed the patent decision. There doesn’t appear to be any news that Apple and Masimo are close to a licensing deal.
We’ll probably know the answer in about six or seven weeks, when Apple announces the new Apple Watch models for 2025, which generally happens around the second week of September.
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If the Masimo issue is ever resolved, Apple can then flip a switch in the watchOS build and all those existing watches will get their oxygen sensors enabled. They must feel like it can be done, and thus the sensor remains.
The patent in question expires in 2027, so all those watches in the US could be enabled then if they aren’t already. And Apple still sells watches outside the US, so there are plenty of users who still have working oxygen sensors.
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I have a watch bought in Ireland and am grateful that I do. It’s better than having an oximeter in my bag as I go about things. The patent surely cannot be that expensive to resolve if there’s only a year or two left on it…
How does the enforcement work? This is physically the same watch you might have bought in the US? And the same watchOS? But it checks the serial number to see it was purchased overseas and enables the sensor?
I live now in Ireland after many years in the US where my wife’s family live and my kids study/studied. We have a long term set of Apple accounts, US, which are a family account. Kept it US as we, like many emigrants/immigrants hover on the where-is-home issue endlessly. Afraid I didn’t do a forensic step by step when I bought the watch, so cannot say whether the watch itself was enabled or whether a switch went on (or off) when I set it up over here.
My research at the time featured many stories of US folks buying watches in Europe and having no issue, the blood oxygen reading worked fine.
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It’s the same hardware but Apple assigns a separate part number for US imported watches. watchOS checks for this (as well as country of the AppleID of the user -Apple does not have approval from all countries to allow the blood oxygen sensor) and disables the feature entirely if it’s that part number.
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Thanks to all. Well, I’m glad I still have my Series 7 watch, but my current 10 and any 2026 may not be fully functional. I realize that it takes two-to-tango in the patent dispute, but US buyers are victims.
Even more stupid - I sent my Apple Watch in to have the battery replaced. What they actually do is send you back a different watch of the same vintage WITH THE PO2 app disabled. Feels like grounds for a class-action suit to me…
(Wow!!!)
There was a lot of reporting when the import ban was put in place (Jan 2024 IIRC) that Apple reserved replacing AppleCare+ replacements with a watch with blood oxygen enabled, because they had stock available at the time, but repairs that were not AppleCare+ replacements received watches without the sensor. I’m not sure if that is still the case. But, if Apple is unable to import a watch with the sensor enabled, I’m not sure how they can replace watches with the sensor enabled.
I guess the communication about it should be better, if they didn’t tell you that this would happen. Well, Apple should do a better job telling people that watch “repairs” are almost always simply replacements with like-new hardware.
Apple did make me sign a waiver acknowledging that the PO2 feature would be disabled. But technically they were supposed to replace my battery, not sell me a replacement for $99
Yes. I’ll just say that this was reported in the press several years ago.
I suspect the procedure for safely replacing a Watch battery is too much for the staff at an Apple Store. So they give you a replacement watch and send the old one to be refurbished in a factory where the skills/equipment to do it are available.
I guess they don’t approve of the iFixit procedure. Which is tricky, but I would think would be easier with a repair jig like the ones Apple uses for Macs and phones.
No, they send the watch to somewhere and they mail back a replacement. The Apple Store does nothing locally
I had the battery in my Apple Watch 6 replaced last under AppleCare+ and received a refurbished replacement back. The O2 sensor continues to work. (Note I had deliberately extended the AppleCare+ month by month until the battery was below 80% so that it would be a free AppleCare replacement and would keep the oxygen sensor active. )
While I agree that the Apple stores don’t work on watches locally, based on my experiences, they do work on iPhones and Macs in store. I’ve had iPhone screens, batteries, and even a camera replaced in store as well as MacBook motherboards, etc.