So this is a fun one to end the year on. Apple pulled the Watch Series 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 from its online store this week, just days before Christmas, because it lost a patent fight over of all things the blood oxygen sensor. If you were planning on grabbing one as a last minute gift, tough luck, apple.com wont sell you one anymore, at least not with that feature turned on.
Quick background for anyone who hasnt been following this: a medical device company called Masimo has been in a legal war with Apple since 2020, claiming Apple poached its engineers and then built a pulse oximetry sensor into the watch using Masimo's patented tech. The International Trade Commission agreed back in October and issued an import ban. Apple appealed, got a temporary reprieve, and kept selling the watches through the holiday shopping season while lawyers argued. That reprieve ran out this week. Online sales of both watches stopped Thursday, and in-store sales at Apple retail locations are set to stop this weekend, right around Christmas Eve, unless a federal appeals court grants Apple an emergency stay before then. Which they're asking for, obviously.
Ive got a Series 9 on my own wrist right now and honestly I forgot the blood oxygen thing was even a headline feature. I think I've opened that app maybe four times since I got it, once to show my mother-in-law because she was curious, and three times by accident while scrolling through watch faces. Its not nothing, pulse ox readings can flag sleep apnea and other issues, but its also not the reason anyone buys an Apple Watch over, say, a Fitbit or a Garmin. The reason people buy it is because it pairs with their iPhone without any fuss and the ecosystem lock-in does its job. So watching this become the hill Apple is fighting on, right at the exact moment when they'd otherwise be printing money off last minute holiday orders, is kind of remarkable.
What I actually find more interesting than the sensor dispute itself is the timing decision. Apple didnt have to pull online sales this week. Reports are saying they chose to stop a few days ahead of the actual deadline, seemingly to avoid the optics (and maybe the legal exposure) of selling watches right up until a court forces their hand. Thats a very Apple move, very controlled, very "we'll set the terms of our own retreat, thanks." Compare that to how most companies handle this kind of thing, dragging their feet until the literal last possible second. Apple basically said fine, we're done, two days early, and let the appeals process play out in the background while customers who wanted a watch for the 25th are left checking Best Buy and Target instead, since third party retailers can apparently keep selling existing inventory.
Theres also something almost quaint about a hardware patent dispute making this much noise in a year that's been dominated by AI news pretty much wall to wall. Every other week its been some model release or another, and here's a case that's just old fashioned intellectual property law, the kind of story that would have been completely normal in, I dont know, 2011 when this blog started. Feels like watching an old rerun. Component-level patent fights used to be the entire tech news cycle back in the smartphone wars era (remember when Apple and Samsung were suing each other on like four continents at once over rounded corners). This is a smaller, quieter version of that same energy, and I kind of appreciate it as a palate cleanser.
If you're actually in the market for one of these watches before Christmas, my honest advice: check your local Best Buy or Target stock today, dont wait, because nobody knows exactly how long third party retailers get to keep selling through existing inventory once Apple's own channel is shut. And if you already own a Series 9 or Ultra 2, nothing changes for you, the ban is about future sales, not the device on your wrist. Apple has said it's working on a software or hardware fix to route around the patent entirely, which honestly sounds like the kind of thing that takes months, not days, so dont expect the ban to lift quickly even if the appeal fails.
Anyway. Merry almost-Christmas, and good luck if you're still watch shopping this weekend.