09/09/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/09/2026 19:00
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09 September 2026
PRESS RELEASE
Introducing Apple Watch Series 12, with the all-new Health Sensing System
Apple Watch Series 12 offers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable, higher-frequency heart rate and HRV sensing, and a readiness score
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. In addition to powering the Health Sensing System, the new S11 chip - Apple's most powerful wearable chip - also enables new features arriving later this year, to help deaf or hard of hearing users stay alert to important sounds, with privacy, security, and accessibility innovations at the core.
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,2 sleep apnea notifications,3 Fall Detection, Emergency SOS,4 and more. Apple Watch Series 12 is the most comprehensive wearable across health, fitness, and safety.5
Apple Watch Series 12 is designed to be as individual as the person wearing it and is available in an array of beautiful finishes, including dark bronze, black, light gold, and space grey aluminium, and radiant gold and natural titanium. It is also available in a stunning ceramic material, in pearl white and night blue. Aluminium models now feature Ceramic Shield 2, which is tougher than any smartwatch glass and 60 percent tougher than the Ion-X of previous aluminium models.6 Apple Watch Series 12 is available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Friday, September 18.
"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. And it's all wrapped in a beautifully thin, light design you'll love wearing all day and night."
The Most Accurate Heart Rate Sensing in a Wearable
Apple Watch Series 12 is re-architected to provide continuous high-fidelity health monitoring using the Health Sensing System, featuring new optical and electrical heart sensors. Using this system and the S11 chip, Apple Watch Series 12 offers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable. A scientifically rigorous study on a diverse population of over 1,000 participants compared the new heart rate sensing accuracy on Apple Watch against leading wearables, resulting in Apple Watch showing the highest accuracy across devices.
With larger, power-efficient green LEDs on the optical heart sensor, Apple Watch Series 12 now measures heart rate every five seconds, all day long. This continuous, passive measurement delivers deeper insight into a user's fitness and physiological state while making 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 provides two separate variants of HRV for better understanding of a user's health status. Recovery HRV is best for identifying daily signals of stress and recovery, while overall HRV is best for insights into a user's broader health, including cardiovascular health. Higher variability is generally associated with better overall recovery, while a lower variability value is an indicator of stress.
Overnight vitals now includes recovery HRV measurements analysed against a user's personal baseline, providing a more complete view of their health status.7 A new daytime vitals view lets users toggle between overnight and daytime metrics, and can potentially spot shifts in their metrics before they show up overnight.
Readiness: A Daily Read on the Body's Capacity
Apple Watch Series 12 introduces readiness, a new feature that analyses a user's recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score to offer insight into their capacity for the day ahead. Readiness provides a single 0-10 score with a clear, actionable recommendation: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. This helps a user decide how to take on their day, whether they're headed into a workday or tackling their training plan.
Readiness updates throughout the day as new data comes in, to reflect, for example, an intense workout or a shift in daytime vitals. Readiness clearly highlights which factors are driving the score and allows users to tap into more details. The scoring algorithm was developed using data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study, in collaboration with exercise scientists and physicians at Apple.
Longer Workout Battery Life and Faster Charging
Apple Watch Series 12 continues to offer up to 24 hours of everyday battery life8 and now offers up to 10 hours of battery life during an outdoor workout - 25 percent more than the previous model.9
Apple Watch Series 12 also offers faster charging: Just 15 minutes now gets up to 12 hours of additional battery life - 50 percent more than the previous model - so users can quickly recharge while getting ready for the day or before bed.10
The Most Accurate Step Tracking of Any Smartwatch
The pedometer model has been completely redesigned with new machine learning algorithms to provide more accurate distance measurements during indoor walk or run workouts, and the S11 chip allows for more accurate step counts all day. As a result, Apple Watch Series 12 now offers the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch.11 The S11 chip also enables the brand-new Steps complication, so users can track their steps in real time, right from their watch face.
Sound Recognition and Shazam Using the S11 Chip
Since Apple Watch is always on a user's wrist, it is the perfect device to help users stay alert to important sounds. With the built-in microphone and the power of the S11 chip, Apple Watch Series 12 offers new features to help users stay aware of the world around them - with user control, privacy, security, and accessibility at the centre of its design.
These features include:
These features are private by design, combining hardware, software, and services to protect user privacy in a way that only Apple can. 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. This is because the S11 chip on Apple Watch Series 12 includes Secure Exclave, a dedicated hardware-isolated compartment that processes audio in complete isolation from the rest of the system, then immediately deletes it.
12
Featuring watchOS 27
watchOS 27 brings a range of additional updates to Apple Watch Series 12, including:
Lineup
Apple Watch Series 12 is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes. Aluminium finishes include beautiful new dark bronze, black, and light gold options, plus the popular space grey finish. Titanium finishes include a rich new radiant gold colour, alongside natural titanium.
A stunning new ceramic version of Apple Watch Series 12 is available in pearl white and night blue finishes. Sand and navy blue Sport Bands that come with ceramic versions of Apple Watch Series 12 feature a ceramic pin-and-tuck closure designed to pair perfectly with the case.
Bands
This fall's Sport Band lineup features a rich array of new colours, including olive, burgundy, wildflower blue, and pale succulent. In addition to bringing new colours 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 colours: essential white, chalk calm, pavement grey, after dark black, and green spark.
The Milanese Loop is now available in stunning radiant gold to match the new radiant gold titanium case, and a new dark bronze colour that pairs with the new dark bronze aluminium case.16
The Modern Buckle band now comes in a new woven material, featuring subtle texture with small, integrated specks of colour, creating a visually rich and dynamic feel.17 For the first time, it is available with gold hardware designed to perfectly match radiant gold titanium cases, in addition to natural hardware.
Apple Watch Hermès Series 12
Apple Watch Hermès Series 12 is now offered in a radiant gold titanium finish for the first time, in addition to the exclusive silver titanium. The radiant gold Apple Watch Hermès Series 12 comes with the new Noir satin Clou de Selle band, featuring a matching gold-finish clasp and saddle stud.
The Apple Watch Hermès collection introduces a new band, Rocabar Club, featuring eye-catching colour contrasts and an elongated H knitted in a graphic, three-dimensional pattern inspired by horse-jumping competitions.
Apple Watch Series 12 and the Environment
Apple Watch Series 12 was built with the environment in mind and drives progress toward Apple's ambitious plan to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. It is made with 40 percent recycled material overall,18 including 100 percent recycled aluminium in the aluminium case and 100 percent recycled titanium in the 3D-printed titanium case. All of the electricity used to manufacture Apple Watch Series 12 is sourced from renewable energy, like wind and solar, across the supply chain,19 and Apple has also invested in enough renewable energy around the world to match the electricity customers use to charge their Apple Watch. Like all Apple products, its paper packaging is 100 percent fibre-based20 and can be easily recycled at home.
Pricing and Availability
Press Contacts
Aileen Tappin
Apple
+44 (0)20 3284 6333
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