Apple Reportedly Developing Screenless Fitness Tracker to Compete with Whoop

Hardware Strategy and Design Considerations

According to Bloomberg’s reporting from August 2026, Apple’s industrial design team has spent roughly a year conceptualizing the screenless band. Gurman compared the internal review to the shift toward foldable form factors for the iPhone. The screenless tracker is being considered alongside other potential wearable updates, including a circular display concept and a ceramic chassis reported by PCMag. However, Gurman noted that a circular Apple Watch is unlikely to reach commercial production, making the screenless band the most viable product from these design explorations.

Eliminating the display addresses a common consumer complaint regarding smartwatches: the requirement for daily charging. A screenless band allows Apple to target a lower price bracket situated directly below the Apple Watch SE, addressing a market segment the company has not fully captured with its current display-equipped lineup.

While Apple has not officially confirmed a release date, pricing, or final naming for the screenless band, the software architecture required to power it is already active. Apple released the Readiness app for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 on September 18, 2026, as reported in product documentation. The system evaluates recent activity, sleep metrics, and overnight vital signs to generate a daily readiness score ranging from 0 to 10.

Users receive one of four daily recommendations: “Recovery,” “Pace,” “Ready,” or “Challenge.” To generate these insights, the underlying health system measures heart rate variability (HRV) every five minutes. Company representatives stated that this measurement frequency is 24 times denser than that of the Series 11. Engineers process these readings by separating data into overall HRV and recovery HRV, comparing metrics against the user’s personal baseline rather than general population averages.

Leadership Changes and Ecosystem Adjustments

The internal push for streamlined tracking hardware is championed by Eddy Cue, who took over Apple’s health and fitness division following the late 2025 departure of Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams. Cue informed colleagues that Apple needs to accelerate its development pace in wearable health and fitness.

This leadership transition prompted internal strategic adjustments. Following the management change, Apple scaled back the scope of Mulberry, an ambitious AI coaching project. Rather than bundling Mulberry’s intelligent features into a paid premium subscription service, engineers integrated the architecture directly into the core Health application.

The screenless band serves as the hardware vehicle for this infrastructure, demonstrating that Apple is preparing to segment its wearable lineup across multiple price points.