Apple today unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12. Apple says the new Watch offers the most accurate heart rate sensing ever in a wearable device. The new model brings higher-frequency heart rate and HRV sensing, a readiness score, and Audio Intelligence features.
The Apple Watch Series 12’s new Health Sensing System and S11 chip delivers higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements, which will power an enhanced suite of health and fitness features including a new readiness score in a redesigned Health app that will be available on iPhone later this year. The new app will offer a new Longevity tab with a Health Age feature.
Apple says the S11 chip is its most powerful wearable chipever. It enables new Audio Intelligence features arriving later this year, which will help users remember key moments from their conversations and stay alert to important sounds. watchOS 27 brings Apple Intelligence and Siri AI to the Apple Watch.
“Apple Watch Series 12 is the most advanced health and fitness companion we’ve ever created,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Apple Watch Product Marketing. “With our new Health Sensing System and S11 chip, Apple Watch Series 12 gives you meaningful insights, like readiness, so you can better understand how to take on your day and care for your health, plus intelligence features that make everyday life easier. And it’s all wrapped in a beautifully thin, light design you’ll love wearing all day and night.”
Apple Watch Series 12 provides continuous high-fidelity health monitoring using the Health Sensing System, featuring new optical and electrical heart sensors. Apple says the Apple Watch Series 12 offers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable.
The new Watch boasts larger, power-efficient green LEDs on the optical heart sensor, measuring heart rate every five seconds, all day long. This provides a deeper insight into a user’s fitness and physiological state, and makes Exercise and Move Activity rings even more accurate. Users can view their real-time heart rate at a glance throughout their day on a new heart rate watch face complication.
HRV, a key indicator of stress and recovery, is now measured up to 24 times more often and available to view in a new section of the Heart Rate app.
Apple Watch Series 12 also introduces readiness, a new feature that analyzes a user’s recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score to offer insight into their capacity for the day ahead, providing a single 0-10 score with a clear, actionable recommendation: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. Readiness updates throughout the day as new data comes in.
Apple Watch Series 12 still offers up to 24 hours of everyday battery life, while now offering up to 10 hours of battery life during an outdoor workout, 25% more than the previous Series 11. Faster charging means a 15 minute charge brings up to 12 hours of additional battery life, 50% more than the Series 11.
The Health app on the iPhone has been redesigned to dynamically respond to a user’s data using Apple Intelligence. A new Insights tab provides timely health information and a new Longevity tab analyzes a user’s longitudinal health data for deeper insights. The Longevity tab also includes Health Age, an Apple Watch feature that shows users how certain metrics are tracking relative to their actual age. YAY! A way for me to actually feel older than I already do!
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.
Audio Intelligence features include:
All Audio Intelligence features are private by design, combining hardware, software, and services to protect user privacy. These features do not create or store audio recordings, and raw audio used for processing is completely inaccessible to the operating systems, apps, the user, or Apple.
