Apple's 2026 watches do not look dramatically different, but the sensor story underneath is a big one. The Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, announced September 9, keep last year's starting prices of $399 and $799 in the U.S. Pre-orders are open now and both models arrive September 18.
A new Health Sensing System
The redesigned sensor package measures heart rate every five seconds, which Apple says is 60 times more frequent than previous models, and captures heart rate variability every five minutes. 9to5Mac reports Apple is describing it as the most accurate heart rate sensor in a wearable. That denser data feeds a new Readiness score built from activity, vitals and sleep. Apple says both watches add eight new health and fitness features in total.
S11 chip and Audio Intelligence
Powering both watches is the S11 chip, which borrows its CPU, GPU and Neural Engine design from the A20 Pro in the new iPhones. That headroom enables three Audio Intelligence features:
- Sound recognition on the wrist
- Live rewind, which replays the last 15 seconds of audio for transcription when you double-click the Digital Crown
- Siri recaps that summarize audio notes
Siri AI also comes to the watch, along with a new Siri Modular watch face.
Design, battery and colors
The Ultra 4 keeps the familiar 49mm titanium case in black and natural finishes, adds a larger battery that Apple says lasts more than two days, and gets a new titanium band. The Series 12 comes in space gray, black, light gold and bronze aluminum; polished titanium in radiant gold and natural; and a returning ceramic option in pearl white and dark blue, plus a Hermès gold edition. Ceramic Shield 2 covers the front glass on both.
The watches run watchOS 27, which ships September 14 alongside iOS 27.
Photo: Apple (source)
