Apple Watch Series 9 is an elegant and good-looking smartwatch. And it’s at its most attractive in premium stainless-steel livery. Not only is the stainless steel more attractive than the aluminum on the entry-level Apple Watch, it has another upgrade: a sapphire crystal display that’s tough and durable.
Apple Watch Series 9 in silver stainless steel and Storm Blue Sport Band
April 20 update below. This post was first published 0n April 17, 2024.
But it costs more. Or at least, until this new offer, it did. The latest limited-time price on Amazon is the lowest the stainless steel version has ever been, and it actually undercuts the price of the aluminum model. Here are the details.
Apple Watch Series 9 with GPS and cellular connectivity and a 41mm stainless steel case usually costs $699. If you picked the same size Watch, also with cellular connection, in aluminum, it would be $559.
However, the new Amazon price is less than that. The $265 reduction, which is the same as 38% off, brings the price of the stainless steel model right down, to just $433.30. So, not only is it more than $250 less than its usual price, it undercuts the aluminum model’s regular price by around $125.
This price only applies to the silver-finish stainless steel with Storm Blue Sport Band—if you want the gold or graphite stainless-steel cases, the prices are a lot higher. The gold-finish version is at full price, and the graphite finish has 10% or $70 off, bringing it down to $629.
If you’re after the larger size, 45mm, the reductions are much lower, reduced from $749 to $679, for instance, for the same silver stainless steel with Storm Blue Sport Band.
The Series 9 Apple Watch is highly impressive. It has a pure, handsome design that has evolved subtly since the first Apple Watch and is at the epitome of elegance now.
It has a fierce range of health and fitness features, including measuring ECG and alerting you if your heart rate suddenly goes unusually high or low. Plus, the blood oxygen feature which was controversially removed from Apple Watch models sold by Apple, is on this version from Amazon.
Then there are the special extra features only found on Series 9, such as the double-tap. When you lift your wrist and tap your index finger and thumb together, you can answer a call, stop a timer, snooze an alarm or reply to a message, all without touching the display, which is useful if you have your hands full, for instance. It also has a display that’s twice as bright as Series 8, up to 2,000 nits, making it easy to read even in bright sunlight.
This is a limited-time offer, so it may not be around for long.
April 19 update. If you fancy an Apple Watch Series 9 but the stainless-steel finish ain’t for you (even with the remarkable discount above), there are still options which will save money right now. Series 9 in aluminum also comes in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm. Each size has a GPS and a GPS + cellular option. Here are the list prices: 41mm GPS $399, 41mm GPS + cellular $499, 45mm GPS $429, GPS + cellular $529. These prices are for the Watch with Sport Band or Solo Loop. Other bands push the base prices up. Here’s what Amazon is offering right now in the way of discounts on both sizes, for GPS only. I haven’t included the one or two models which are being sold at full list price, and in calculating the money off, I’ve rounded down the discount to the nearest whole dollar.
41mm GPS, starting with the lowest discount:
Silver with Winter Blue Sport Loop, $387.49 ($11 off)
Pink with Pink Sport Loop, $374.39 ($24 off)
Starlight with Starlight Sport Band, $374.39 ($24 off),
Starlight with Starlight Sport Loop, $367.33 ($32 off),
Product (RED) with Product (RED) Sport Band, $329 ($70 off)
Midnight with Midnight Sport Loop, $322.41 ($76 off)
Silver with Storm Blue Sport Loop, $315.84 ($83 off)
45mm GPS, starting with the lowest discount: Silver with Winter Blue Sport Loop, $419.99 ($9 off)
Midnight with Midnight Sport Band, $402.04 ($26 off)
Starlight with Starlight Sport Band, $378.42 ($50 off),
Product (RED) with Product (RED) Sport Band, $359 ($70 off)
Midnight with Midnight Sport Loop, $359 ($70 off)
None of these discounts comes close to the huge stainless-steel price offer, but all are lower-priced than the headliner above. Remember, though, you’re not getting stainless steel, sapphire crystal display or cellular connectivity.
April 20 update. There’s another current model in the Apple Watch range and it’s the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Offer prices on the top-of-the-range hardware are hard to find, but not impossible. And in the last few days, it’s suddenly become available at a reduced price on the Apple website.
There are two things to note here: first, it’s only to be had with money off if you go to the certified refurbished part of the site—link here for the model with Orange Ocean Band, here for the one with the Blue Ocean Band and here for the White Ocean Band.
The second thing is that because it’s being sold by Apple it almost certainly won’t have the blood oxygen monitoring app active. Apple doesn’t specify this so it’s hard to know for sure, but it’s not available from Apple for new models.
Apple is currently appealing the whole legal situation around this feature, which has come up because of a patent infringement with medical device company Masimo, and if Apple wins, since the feature was taken out through a software change that left the hardware untouched, it could re-activate the feature. But that’s not guaranteed. If blood oxygen monitoring is essential, you need to buy the Watch from someone other than Apple.
You can snap it up here for a good price, though: $679 instead of the new price of $799, a saving of $120.
The refurbished section also has deals for the most affordable Apple Watch of all, the Apple Watch SE second-generation. For example, here you can pick up the 40mm model with Starlight aluminum case and Starlight Sport Band for $209, a $40 savings on the price when new. There’s no issue with blood oxygen monitoring here because the SE has never had it.
The deals highlighted within this post were selected by the Contributor and do not contain affiliate links.
