There’s literally never been a better time to buy an Apple Watch Series 3. Head over to Walmart today, and you’ll find the 38mm GPS+Cellular model on sale for as little as $229, down from the list price of $379. If you want the 42mm model , it’s on sale for just $259 (down from $409). If you’re okay with not having the cellular connectivity, you can get the 38mm GPS-only model for as little as $199 and its 42mm counterpart for $229.
There’s a whole range of options available for sale, so check them out while the sale is still around. In most cases, these are the best prices we’ve seen for these models—and by a substantial margin, at that.
I will caution, though, that it’s likely Apple will announce the Apple Watch Series 5 either at Apple’s expected September iPhone event or at a later showcase. That will put this model two generations behind. I doubt it’ll be a substantial improvement over the Series 4—which introduced a slightly larger display as well as health-oriented features like a built-in fall detector and ECG—but it’ll almost certainly be faster.
I personally still use the Apple Watch Series 3, and it remains fast and capable enough that I’ve never felt a pressing need to upgrade to the Series 4 (although I totally admit I’d like to use the new watch faces Apple designed for the Series 4’s larger display). The battery life remains decent after over a year and a half of frequent use, and I have no trouble using third-party apps designed for the Apple Watch.
If you want to see why everyone is raving about the Apple Watch but don’t want to plunk out the full price for a new unit, this is a good model and price to start out with. For more information, be sure to check out our review from October 2017.