Sometimes Apple products will follow perfectly reasonable roadmaps responding to legitimate market demands with perfectly reasonable sets of incremental improvements. Yes, perfectly rational—and kinda boring.

If reports about the forthcoming Apple Watch 2 are correct, this may be one of those times.

When Apple gets the press and analysts together early next month for its fall wingding, we'll see a couple of new phones and the second iteration of the Apple Watch. The new phones—probably called the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus—will look a whole lot like the iPhone 6s, with some spec upgrades and a better camera.

The other marquee announcement that day, the Watch 2, will look like the same kind of (incremental) upgrade. In fact, the go-to supply chain source for this stuff—KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo—likens the "Apple Watch 2" to the "S" generation phones Apple releases between major, numbered, iPhone generations. These "S" series devices have some spec upgrades, but usually no major new feature or design innovations.

Kuo, who is usually accurate, cites supply chain sources to say that the new Watch will be roughly the same shape and size as the first Apple Watch, but will add a faster chip, a barometer (to measure elevation climbed), a GPS radio (for tracking runs), and some kind of waterproofing rating. The current Apple Watch comes in two sizes—42mm and 38mm. It remains to be seen if Apple keeps those sizes, but we've seen nothing that suggests it won't.

As any first-generation Watch wearer will tell you, the battery must be charged up every day. This will likely be true of the Apple Watch 2. That's because Apple will probably wring some better battery efficiency from the device, but that will be canceled out by the addition of the GPS radio, which is a bit of a power-sucker.

The new Watch will be roughly the same shape and size as the first Apple Watch, but will have a faster chip, a barometer (to measure elevation climbed), a GPS radio (for tracking runs), and some kind of waterproofing rating.
The battery is perhaps the greatest limiting factor for smartwatches today. New features—like GPS radios—increase the amount of power required from the battery. And the bigger the power requirement, the larger the battery must be, which presents a serious design challenge to Apple, which loves to keep making products that are thinner and smaller.
http://www.mobilestation.mobi/2016/08/what-we-heard-so-far-about-apple-watch-2.html