The new Apple Watch is for rich and 'healthy' people

You can wear the new Apple Watch while you swim. It has a better screen. It's faster. It can do some nifty GPS stuff. And it costs $100 more than the last entry-level model.

If you are somebody who exercises, or likes to signal to the outside world that you exercise even if you don't, Apple thinks its new wearable is for you.

At its event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 2 to the world for the first time. It costs $369, and will go on sale late this month. Additionally, Apple added a new Watch model to its lineup, a special edition Apple Watch Nike+ co-produced with Nike aimed at the health and fitness set. It also costs $369. The first-gen Apple Watch is also still available for sale, now at $269.

The new Apple Watch, much like the highly anticipated iPhone 7, arrives at a tough time for its market.

Although the wearables market as a whole is growing, most of that is going to the lower-end, fitness-focused devices like Fitbits. Recently released IDC data shows the wearables market grew 26 percent in the second quarter of 2016 from last year; "basic wearables" like Fitbits grew by about 48 percent, but sales of higher-cost "smart" devices like the Apple Watch declined by 27 percent.

This is likely why Apple doubled down on fitness applications with its second-generation, and why it produced a whole new model with Nike. It can track your laps in a pool, help you go hiking, and help you better geographically map exercise routines.

Or as Apple Watch development chief Jeff Williams put it, shortly before an inviting a Nike exec to share the stage, "We think the Apple Watch is the ultimate device for a healthy life."

This is likely a necessary gambit for Apple, as March experts have soured on the high-end wearables market's near-term outlook. This past March, IDC predicted that these types of features — in addition to basics like better battery life — were where Apple needed to focus its energy in order to grow the wearables market.

DC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said at the time that such smartwatches "will only account for a quarter of all wearables in 2016 and will grow to about a third by 2020.

In its first year after launching in April 2015, analysts estimated that Apple sold about 12 million to 13 million Apple Watches. While this dramatically outpaces how the iPhone performed in its inaugural year, industry experts have been hesitant to call it a slam dunk. It's not yet clear what the ceiling on the wearables market is, or whether people will pay to upgrade their pricey Apple Watches every 18 months or so.

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