Report: That flat Apple Watch Series 7 design might be next year's Series 8

The Apple Watch Series 7 is official, and it doesn’t look like the leaks. Countless rumors are floating around about what may or may not have happened behind the scenes, and the latest one is quite interesting.

Were the leaks all about the 2022 Apple Watch Series 8? 

In a Daring Fireball story (via iMore) earlier this week, journalist John Gruber responded to recent speculation of a last-minute Apple Watch Series 7 design change following production issues in late August.

Gruber states that “from what I’ve heard, the flat-edge watch designs might be legitimate leaks, but they're next year's designs. That's how far in advance Apple works on hardware.”

In other words, Apple was “already in the advanced stages of designing the 2022 Apple Watches months ago.” That’s certainly an interesting idea, and one that makes a lot of sense when you consider the development process of hardware.

It’s worth noting that Gruber isn’t an Apple leaker. He does, however, have a proven track record of inside information and has worked closely with Apple in the past, so there’s no reason to believe this is false information.

The idea that the leaked Watch Series 7 design could be next year’s Watch Series 8 model is backed up by a recent thread of Tweets from leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, who has successfully leaked several Apple products in the past.

As Hemmerstoffer points out, switching hardware at the last-minute would require that Apple at least complete the DVT (Design Validation Test) phase and the PVT (Production Validation Test) steps, which combined take around four months.

If Apple had changed the Watch Series 7 design last-minute as some people have suggested, it wouldn’t be able to hit shelves until January or February at the earliest. But as we know, the Watch Series 7 is slated to hit shelves much sooner — this fall.

Ultimately, none of this really matters. The leaks were wrong, and life goes on. But it’s certainly an interesting topic to talk about, especially when there are so many theories floating around.