Apple announces its Watch Series 9 will have new ‘hand gestures’ feature that can be controlled without touch – as company prepares to unveil iPhone 15 at 2023 flagship event

Apple announced its new Apple Watch Series 9 Tuesday, which features a touchless ability to answer calls and snooze alarms – users tape their index and thumb together to perform these tasks.

It uses machine learning to detect tiny changes in blood flow when the user taps their fingers together, freeing up the other hand for other tasks like walking a dog or holding a cup of coffee, said Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams. 

The Series 9 was designed with the tech giant’s most powerful chip – the S9-Chp – that is twice as fast as the one introduced in 2022. 

Along with a new device, Apple announced innovative features, including Name Drop between the devices and the ability to sync your Watch with a Home Pod.

The event will also see the highly anticipated iPhone 15, rumored to be the most significant overhaul to its smartphone line in years. 

Apple kicked off its annual September product event with emotional stories of people whose lives were saved by its Apple Watch – and then revealed the new Apple Watch Series 9

Apple started its annual September event with experiences from several Apple Watch owners whose devices saved their lives, either by the heart rate monitor or SOS Emergency feature.

While these life-saving features are crucial, the tech giant has rolled out new updates with the Series 9.

The Apple Watches new internal hardware that picks up the hand gestures makes the double-tap feature possible.

The Series 8 provides up to 1,000 nits of brightness, but the latest model is up to 2,000.

Name Drop will be released with the upcoming iOS 17 update, which allows users to tap their devices to share contacts.

However, this is not expected to hit the Apple Watch until later this year.

The Series 9 will look similar to previous models but will have updated colors, including pink, starlight and silver. 

The Series 9 was designed with the tech giant’s most powerful chip – the S9-Chp – that is twice as fast as the one introduced in 2022

The tech giant is also ditching the traditional leather bands for Finewoven, which it claims feels like the original bands but are made of cloth.

And Apple said it has been working with Hermes and Nike in producing the cloth-made peices.