When Apple unveiled its latest Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Watch Series 11 in September, most attention fell, as usual, on software upgrades and battery claims. Here’s the twist: Every case for the new Apple Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Apple Watch Series 11 is now made using large-scale 3D printing. It is a shift that reimagines how one of the company’s most successful products is built and sparks off a conversation about what industrial manufacturing looks like at a global scale.

The change is deceptively subtle. Apple has not altered the outward design of its watches. The polished finish on the Series 11 remains familiar, and the Ultra 3 retains its rugged aesthetic. What has changed is the method behind the metal. Apple is using an additive process — known as Laser Powder Bed Fusion, according to Hodinkee — to print each case layer by layer from 100 per cent recycled titanium powder. This replaces the long-established subtractive process of machining down forged metal blanks, a method common across both consumer electronics and Swiss watchmaking.

In traditional case making, the process is straightforward: Begin with a block of metal and cut away everything that is not the final product. Apple’s engineers see this approach consuming far more metal than necessary. By contrast, printing the case allows the company to build only what is required. Apple estimates that the switch cuts its titanium use, saving more than 400 metric tonnes of raw material this year alone.

But the ambition goes further. Apple has committed to becoming carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. Using less material and more recycled content is part of that equation. The electricity used in Watch production already comes from renewable sources, but the shift to additive manufacturing introduces efficiencies that cannot be matched by milling. The scale of Apple’s operations means even minor improvements can be consequential; a 50 per cent drop in raw titanium use is noteworthy.

The choice of material is also notable. Turning to Hodinkee, the watches are printed from grade 23 titanium — a lower-oxygen variant of the widely used grade 5 alloy — which is valued for its durability and suitability for laser sintering. High-end watch brands such as Blancpain have used grade 23 in limited runs, but none has attempted anything close to Apple’s volume. Procuring this material at scale, and ensuring it remains fully recycled, requires sourcing titanium scrap from multiple suppliers and reworking it into powder with tightly controlled oxygen levels. Powdered titanium is volatile; too much oxygen, and it can become explosive under laser heat.

From here the process becomes a choreography of precision. Each case begins inside a bed of fine titanium powder. Six lasers sweep across the surface, fusing particles into a solid form according to a digital template. When one layer is complete, the platform drops by 60 microns, and a new layer of powder is spread. The object forms not by rising upward but by sinking slowly into the powder bed, revealed only after roughly 900 layers and about twenty hours of printing.

Once the build concludes, operators vacuum away the loose powder in a “rough depowdering” step. The remaining residue is removed during the fine depowdering phase. Everything left over is collected and reused for future prints. Cases are printed diagonally, balanced on a single corner, then separated from their support bases with a diamond wire saw. They are then engraved with individual barcodes for traceability and inspected by automated systems to verify dimensions and cosmetic consistency.

Some of the most meaningful differences are invisible. For Apple Watch, this meant being able to improve the waterproofing process for the antenna housing in cellular models.

Apple spent years experimenting with 3D printing before arriving at this moment. Early prototypes were too rough or too limited in scale. The breakthrough came from iterative collaboration across design, operations, materials science and environmental teams. Those collaborations produced not just a new method for Watch cases but a wider shift in thinking. The same recycled titanium powder is now used to print the enclosure for the USB-C port on the new iPhone Air, a part that must be both unusually thin and structurally resilient.

Whether this marks the beginning of a broader transition remains unclear. Apple’s product designs evolve deliberately, and manufacturing changes at this scale are neither simple nor swift. But the company’s move has already prompted speculation within the watch industry, where additive manufacturing has typically been a tool for experimentation rather than standard production.

Apple’s decision to print millions of near-identical titanium cases suggests that the technology may finally have reached a point where aesthetics, cost, sustainability and reliability can coexist.