Apple Watch Pro renders give us our best look at Apple’s big redesign

The iPhone 14 event is just a few hours away, but the show will deliver various hardware announcements, not just the new iPhones. The Apple Watch Pro should have been the event’s big surprise, but the rugged wearable has appeared in extensive leaks.

More importantly, a series of last-minute reports detailed some of the surprise design features that Apple incorporated into the Apple Watch Pro. And now we have a fresh set of renders to highlight those changes.

According to most reports, the Apple Watch Pro will feature a flat display. Add a titanium chassis featuring flatter sides, and the larger wearable should be more durable than the Series 8 models. The screen will have a diagonal of 49mm or about 2-inch.

The size increase also helps Apple boost the battery life, as the wearable will have more room internally for a larger capacity battery pack.

The renders that Ian Zelbo and Parker Ortolani created are based on the last-minute Apple Watch Pro design leaks.

We learned in the past few days that the wearable will feature three physical buttons. The third one sits opposite the traditional Side button. Its purpose is still a secret.

One speculation is that it’ll be a programmable button that will give users direct access to an app. The rumored Low Power Mode could be another use for the third button. You’d just have to press it to enable and disable the mode and conserve more energy.

The old buttons are in for a design adjustment that not everybody will appreciate. There’s a protrusion encasing the Digital Crown and Side button. The easiest way to explain the design complication is durability.

If the Apple Watch Pro is to be more rugged than any other model, it has to ensure the safety of all its components. An exposed Digital Crown can be prone to accidental damage in extreme conditions. But, again, this is just speculation.

Until Apple takes the wraps off the Watch Pro models, the renders above give us our best look at the rugged wearable.

More Apple Watch coverage: For more Apple Watch news, visit our Apple Watch Series 8 guide.