Introducing Apple Watch Series 12, with the all-new Health Sensing System

opens in new window PRESS RELEASE September 9, 2026 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced Apple Watch Series 12, engineered with advanced health sensors and all-new Apple silicon to deliver the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable,1 and advanced health and fitness features. With the new Health Sensing System and S11 chip, Apple Watch Series 12 delivers higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements, which power an enhanced suite of health and fitness features including a new readiness score. A redesigned Health app on iPhone arrives later this year, including a new Longevity tab with a Health Age feature showing how metrics are tracking relative to a user’s age. In addition to powering the Health Sensing System, the S11 chip — Apple’s most powerful wearable chip — also enables new Audio Intelligence features arriving later this year, to help users remember key moments from their conversations and stay alert to important sounds, built with privacy, security, and accessibility innovations at the core.2 With watchOS 27, Apple Intelligence powers Siri AI on Apple Watch, bringing personal context understanding and broad world knowledge to the wrist. These features add to the many ways Apple Watch already helps users stay active, better understand their health, and get help when they need it, with advanced workout tracking, sleep tracking, heart health notifications, the ECG app,3 sleep apnea notifications,4 Fall Detection, Emergency SOS,5 and more. Apple Watch Series 12 is the most comprehensive wearable across health, fitness, and safety.6 An Apple Watch Series 12 user is pictured running on a track. An Apple Watch Series 12 user is shown swimming in a pool. An Apple Watch Series 12 user is shown doing strength training. An Apple Watch Series 12 user is shown standing in profile outdoors. Apple Watch Series 12 shows the Heart Rate app. Apple Watch Series 12 shows daytime vitals. Apple Watch Series 12 shows overnight vitals. iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12 show a user’s results in the redesigned Health app. iPhone 18 Pro shows a Health Age of -3.9 years along with the message “Build on Your Healthy Habits” in the Longevity tab of the Health app. iPhone 18 Pro shows the user’s Health Age history with a graph, along with their sleep score and heart rate variability. iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12 show a sleep score of 84 with the message “A Good Night’s Sleep.” iPhone 18 Pro shows a readiness score of 7 and Ready. iPhone 18 Pro shows Exercise rings in the Insights tab of the Health app. iPhone 18 Pro shows the user’s heart rate with the message “Cardio Fitness Trending Up” in the Insights tab of the Health app. Audio Intelligence: A New Way to Stay More Present and Engaged Throughout the Day Since Apple Watch is always on a user’s wrist, it is the perfect device to help users stay alert to important sounds and stay present and engaged in conversations throughout the day. With the built-in microphone, the power of the S11 chip, the latest Apple Intelligence models on iPhone, and Private Cloud Compute, Apple Watch Series 12 offers a brand-new class of Apple Intelligence features. Audio Intelligence helps users stay aware of the world around them, catch what they missed, and remember key moments — with user control, privacy, security, and accessibility at the center of its design. Sound Recognition, which comes to Apple Watch to alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing of important sounds, even when their iPhone isn’t with them. This feature listens for sounds like sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying, and uses on-device intelligence to notify users when they’re detected. Live Rewind, which can help users recall what was just said in conversation. A double press of the Digital Crown shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet, so the user can catch something they may have missed or are less familiar with. Users can ask Siri about the content of the text or save it to the Siri app to revisit later. Siri Recap, which can create high-level summaries of conversations that users can review later to jog their memory. When Siri Recap is turned on, after a conversation, Apple Intelligence automatically generates a title and key points in the new Siri app, allowing users to be more present and engaged in the moment. Shazam, which instantly detects the music playing around the user and automatically displays the song title and artist’s name on the Music Recognition widget in the Smart Stack, easily glanceable on the wrist. Apple Watch Series 12 shows the Sound Recognition feature with a message about a doorbell being detected. Apple Watch Series 12 shows the Live Rewind feature with a message that says, “Make sure you stay to the left after the trail marker, unless you want to run a longer loop.” Apple Watch Series 12 and iPhone 18 Pro show the Siri Recap feature with an outline of a personal training routine. Apple Watch Series 12 shows Shazam with the song “Honeybee” by Olivia Rodrigo detected. Siri AI Brings Personal Context Understanding and Broad World Knowledge Featuring watchOS 27 A dynamic app grid featuring the icons for five Siri-suggested apps, which are a user’s most-used and recently used Apple Watch apps. A new single-handed tap gesture, which lets users conveniently open a widget in the Smart Stack by tapping their index finger and thumb. Now users can use the double tap gesture to scroll through the Smart Stack and single tap to select an individual widget — all using only one hand.15 Smart Stack widget suggestions, which surface when they are most relevant, like a Parked Car suggestion from Maps or a Birthday Message suggestion on a close contact’s birthday. Support for perimenopause and menopause in Cycle Tracking on Apple Watch and in the Health app on iPhone.16 Support for Workout Buddy on Apple Watch when users don’t have their iPhone nearby. Workout Buddy also now incorporates even more fitness data when delivering motivational insights, and is now available in Spanish in addition to English.17 Lineup Apple Watch Series 12 in dark bronze aluminum with an olive Sport Band. Apple Watch Series 12 in black aluminum with a burgundy plaid Sport Loop band. Apple Watch Series 12 in light gold aluminum with an olive Sport Loop band. Apple Watch Series 12 in space gray aluminum with a wildflower blue Braided Solo Loop band. Apple Watch Series 12 in radiant gold titanium with a camel Modern Buckle band. Apple Watch Series 12 in natural titanium with a natural Milanese Loop band. Apple Watch Series 12 in pearl white ceramic. Apple Watch Series 12 in night blue ceramic. Bands This fall’s Sport Band lineup features a rich array of new colors, including olive, burgundy, wildflower blue, and pale succulent. In addition to bringing new colors including chambray blue and magenta, Sport Loops introduce a special new plaid pattern using innovative inkjet-printing technology, available in burgundy plaid and light umber plaid options. Nike Sport Bands and Nike Sport Loops come in five new colors: essential white, chalk calm, pavement grey, after dark black, and green spark. Sport Band options are shown in olive, burgundy, wildflower blue, and pale succulent. Sport Loop bands are shown in chambray blue, burgundy plaid, light umber plaid, and magenta. Four Modern Buckle bands are shown in various colors with both gold and silver hardware in the new woven material. Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the UK, the U.S., and more than 50 other countries and regions can pre-order Apple Watch Series 12 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 18. Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399 (U.S.). New Apple Watch bands will be available to order today from apple.com/store and on the Apple Store app, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 18. watchOS 27 will be available for Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later on Monday, September 14, and requires iPhone 11 or later or iPhone SE (2nd generation or later) with iOS 27 or later. Not all features are available on all devices or in all regions. For more information about availability, visit apple.com. Apple Intelligence will be available with watchOS 27 on Monday, September 14, for users with an Apple Intelligence-enabled device set to a supported language. Apple Intelligence is available with support for these languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see apple.com/apple-intelligence. Siri AI is rolling out with watchOS 27 as a beta on Monday, September 14, for users with a supported device set to English, with support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. New subscribers may get three months of Apple Fitness+ and Apple Music with the purchase of Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch SE 3, or Apple Watch Ultra 4. Offer and service availability varies by region. See apple.com/promo for details.23 AppleCare delivers exceptional service and support, with flexible options for Apple users. Customers can choose AppleCare+ to cover their new Apple Watch or, in the U.S., AppleCare One to protect multiple products in one simple plan. Both plans include coverage for accidents like drops and spills, theft and loss protection on eligible products, battery replacement service, and 24/7 support from Apple Experts. For more information, visit apple.com/applecare.