• Apple kicked off its latest devices event with the announcement of the Apple Watch Series 9.
• The smartwatch features new silicon in the form of the S9 SiP chip.
• It also boasts a new interactive feature called double tap, and is said to be the company’s first carbon neutral product.

This evening (for South Africans), Apple held its latest consumer product event. While the main focus of the event was the new iPhone 15 series, the company kicked things off on the wearable side of things, debuted the Watch Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra Series 2.

We are focusing on the former, which Apple has christened as its first-ever carbon neutral device.

“As part of Apple 2030, the carbon footprint of Apple Watch has been significantly decreased. Emissions were reduced from the three biggest sources of greenhouse gases — materials, electricity, and transportation,” the Cupertino-based company explained in a press release.

“The small amount of emissions remaining are offset with high-quality carbon credits from nature-based projects. Apple Watch packaging has been redesigned to be 100 percent fiber-based, and a new logo on the packaging indicates models that are carbon neutral,” it added.

Shifting to the performance of the new Series 9, it is sporting the S9 SiP. Apple calls the silicon its most powerful chip in a smartwatch to date, with a new 4-core Neural Engine that can process machine learning tasks up to twice as fast compared to its predecessor.

One of the other elements that Apple highlighted in its presentation was a new double tap feature, which is powered by the aforementioned S9 SiP.

“Double tap controls the primary button in an app so it can be used to stop a timer, play and pause music, or snooze an alarm. The gesture can be used to answer and end a phone call, and even to take a photo with the Camera Remote on Apple Watch,” the company explained.

“This new double tap gesture is enabled by the faster Neural Engine in Apple Watch Series 9, which processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine learning algorithm. The algorithm detects the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap,” it continued.

The Apple Watch Series 9 is available for pre-order Stateside from today, and goes on sale come 22nd September, but the double tap feature will only arrive next month via a software update to watchOS 10.

As for local pricing and availability, those details will be shared in the coming weeks. For now, the Series 9 is listed from $399.