Some new Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Apple Watch Series 12 owners are seeing their wearble device unexpectedly reboot, with diagnostic logs pointing to the Apple Neural Engine as the culprit.
The new models launched on Friday, and almost immediately, MacRumors forums member began complaining of their new wrist precious suddenly rebooting while they were interacting with the device. Around 30 owners have reported random reboots so far.
Activities that caused an Apple logo and a reboot included things like using Siri AI, editing watch faces, using Maps or browsing the App Store, making phone calls, and recording workouts. Some users report the watch spontneously rebooted while it was idle.
At least four owners have shared diagnostic logs showing the same Neural Engine timeout. In each case, the Apple Neural Engine appears to hang for around two seconds before a firmware monitor triggers a kernel panic, resulting in a forced restart.
The problem has been reports for devices running both the original watchOS 27 build, as well as the day-one update available during the setup process. Some users have restaged their Apple Watches, erasing them and setting them up as new, but to no avail. At least one Series 12 owner said a replacement unit experienced the same Neural Engine panic.
Complaints aren’t restricted to a single forum, as users have also posted on Reddit and the Apple Community Support boards to share similar experiences, so the problem could be fairly widespread. Apple has yet to acknowledged the issue.