Apple has announced Apple Watch Series 12 with a new Health Sensing System, S11 chip, higher-frequency heart rate and HRV measurements, a new readiness score, Audio Intelligence, and Siri AI with watchOS 27. It comes in 42mm and 46mm sizes with aluminum, titanium, and ceramic cases.
Apple Watch Series 12
The new optical heart sensor uses larger, power-efficient green LEDs alongside a new electrical heart sensor. The Health Sensing System measures heart rate every five seconds. Apple says a study involving more than 1,000 participants found Apple Watch had the highest heart-rate sensing accuracy among the tested wearables.
HRV is measured up to 24 times more often, with Recovery HRV for daily stress and recovery and overall HRV for broader health insights. Overnight Recovery HRV is compared with a personal baseline, while a new daytime vitals view lets users switch between daytime and overnight measurements.
The new readiness score uses recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score to provide a 0–10 score with recommendations including Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, and Go For It. It updates throughout the day and shows the factors contributing to the score.
Other updates include:
- Redesigned pedometer machine learning for indoor walking and running
- Steps complication and real-time heart-rate watch-face complication
- Improved Exercise and Move Activity tracking
- Apple’s most accurate step tracking, according to the company
Battery life is up to 24 hours for everyday use and up to 10 hours during an outdoor workout, 25% more than the previous generation. A 15-minute charge provides up to 12 hours of additional battery life, 50% more than before.
The redesigned Health app adds Insights, Longevity, Health Age, and movement evaluations. In the U.S., testing for more than 50 biomarkers will arrive later this year through Quest Diagnostics for $119.
Design and Bands
Apple Watch Series 12 is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes.
- Aluminum: Dark bronze, black, light gold, space gray
- Titanium: Radiant gold, natural titanium
- Ceramic: Pearl white, night blue
The aluminum models use Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple says is 60% tougher than the previous Ion-X glass. Ceramic models come with sand or navy Sport Bands.
Band options include Sport Band, Sport Loop, Nike Sport Band, Nike Sport Loop, Milanese Loop, and Modern Buckle, with new colors and finishes across the range.
Health features
Audio Intelligence combines the built-in microphone and S11 chip with Apple Intelligence models on iPhone and Private Cloud Compute. It adds:
- Sound Recognition: Detects sirens, alarms, doorbells, and a baby crying
- Live Rewind: Shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as text after a double press of the Digital Crown
- Siri Recap: Provides a high-level summary with key points
- Music Recognition: Identifies nearby songs using Shazam
Apple says raw audio is not accessible to the operating system, apps, users, or Apple. Secure Exclave processes it in a hardware-isolated compartment and immediately deletes it. Users can enable or disable these features and control where and when Siri Recap takes notes.
Siri Recap does not provide a full transcript and excludes financial and government-assigned identifiers. Siri Recap and Live Rewind will arrive as beta features later this year.
Siri and watchOS 27
Apple Watch Series 12 supports Siri AI powered by Apple Intelligence, along with a new Siri app, Siri Modular watch face, and Dynamic app grid with five Siri-suggested apps.
Smart Stack adds gestures for opening widgets, scrolling, and selecting items, plus contextual suggestions such as Parked Car and Birthday Message. watchOS 27 also adds Cycle Tracking for perimenopause and menopause and lets Workout Buddy work without the iPhone nearby, with support for Spanish and English.
Apple Watch Hermès Series 12
Apple Watch Hermès Series 12 is available in radiant gold titanium for the first time, along with an exclusive silver titanium option. The radiant gold model comes with a Noir satin Clou de Selle band with a matching gold-finish clasp and saddle stud. The Rocabar Club band features contrasting colors and an elongated H 3D knit pattern.
Environment
Apple Watch Series 12 uses 40% recycled material overall.
- 100% recycled aluminum cases
- 100% recycled titanium in 3D-printed cases
- Renewable electricity across the manufacturing supply chain
- Apple has invested in enough renewable energy to match the electricity customers use to charge Apple Watch
- 100% fiber-based, home-recyclable packaging
Pricing and availability
Apple Watch Series 12 is available to pre-order in India, the U.S., and more than 50 other countries and regions. It will be available in stores from Friday, September 18.
- Apple Watch Series 12: Starts at Rs. 56,900 — 42mm: Rs. 56,900 / Rs. 68,900; 46mm: Rs. 62,900 / Rs. 74,900, Aluminium Case: Starts at Rs. 56,900, Titanium Case: Starts at Rs. 99,900, Ceramic / Titanium Milanese Loop: Rs. 1,24,900
- Bands: Available to order online and through the Apple Store app; stores from September 18
watchOS 27 will be available from September 14 for Apple Watch Series 9 and later, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, with an iPhone 11 or later or iPhone SE (2nd generation) or later running iOS 27 or later.
Siri AI beta starts in English on September 14, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish following in October. Other supported languages include Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Availability varies by region and language.