watchOS Updates Broken On Older Apple Watch Models (UPDATE: It’s Fixed!)

watchOS Updates Broken On Older Apple Watch Models (UPDATE: It’s Fixed!)

Update: Apple has reportedly addressed this issue.

With the release of today’s watchOS 11.3 update, Apple inadvertently broke watchOS updates for some older Apple Watch models. MacRumors reports that several Apple Watch owners have complained about the situation on social networks.

Apple Watch models that are unable to be updated to watchOS 11, including the Apple Watch SE 1, Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5, have been hit with a bug that prevents some of them from installing the latest version of watchOS 10, which is watchOS 10.6.1.

An Apple Watch that did not have watchOS 10.6.1 installed prior to the release of watchOS 11.3 and iOS 18.3 is now unable to install the watchOS 10.6.1 update.

In addition, some Apple Watch models running earlier versions of watchOS 10 cannot be paired to an iPhone.

This issue only applies to Apple Watch models that are limited to those not already running watchOS 10.6.1, an update that came out last August. We will likely see Apple fix this issue in the near future.