Buying the Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) made sense to me when I picked it up a few years ago – at full price, mind – because I was already walled inside Apple‘s ecosystem. While I would have preferred something with ECG monitoring, I couldn’t justify the higher price of the Apple Watch 8 compared to the SE 2. I don’t regret that decision at all.
The Apple Watch SE 2 has served me well since – it lets me know when my heart’s thumping rapidly in my chest and that’s really what I’m after at the end of the day. It’s more than justified the AU$398 I paid for it when I bought it, but it’s been available for a lot less since then.
It was AU$350 during Black Friday sales in 2023, then dropped to AU$343 in July and now – if you don’t mind the 40mm Starlight case – the GPS edition is down to an all-time low price of just AU$319. In fact, you might even be able to save a little more if you have an old device to trade in – Amazon has partnered with Northladder to get you online quotes and arrange for home pick-ups, and you’ll get an Amazon gift card in return.
However, if this is the deal you want, you might want to hurry as I don’t think this will last long. I’ve seen previous offers on the Apple Watch SE disappear in hours, and they all cost more than this. You can always use the trade-in value on something else – it’s still a saving.
An Apple Watch – even the SE version – is a great way to make the most of Apple’s impressive Health app to look after your wellbeing by collecting information on your workouts, sleep, activity and daily habits. And it’s best used by someone who already uses an iPhone that it can be paired with.
You can screen calls and read messages from your wrist, get directions from Apple Maps, monitor your heart rate for warning signs of conditions like atrial fibrillation, notify your loved ones automatically in an emergency with Fall Detection, and lots more.
At this price, it really is excellent value.
