Five years after Apple stops selling a product, it may become ‘vintage’, meaning Apple will still repair it. Five years after that, it can become ‘obsolete,’ and Apple no longer offers hardware service or parts. Today’s that day for the Apple Watch Series 1. Here’s what that means
Wait, is it the Series 1, or the 2nd-gen Apple Watch?
In a nutshell, both. They’re the same picture device. When Apple released the original Apple Watch in 2015, it didn’t have a Series number. The next year, when Apple introduced two new models, Series 1 and Series 2, it retroactively renamed the original Apple Watch as Series 0.
While the Series 1 was basically a repackaged Series 0 with a faster processor, Series 2 was the true successor of the original Apple Watch, also adding GPS and water resistance.
Today, the Apple Watch Series 1 was officially moved from ‘vintage’ to ‘obsolete’ list (via MacRumors), joining the Series 2, which, interestingly, gained the ‘obsolete’ designation in November 2024.
Why the time frame difference?
While Apple can tag a product as vintage or obsolete once the five- or ten-year mark has passed, it often waits until it runs out of service parts to make the change. In this case, the company likely ran out of parts for the Series 2 before it did for the Series 1. Now, it’s probably out of parts for both.
If you’re still sporting a Series 1 Apple Watch, it’s not necessarily the end of the line—but getting support may be trickier, as you’ll now have to rely on select third-party service centers.
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