9/10
Open rating explainerInformationWIREDNew Health Sensing System increases frequency and breadth of health metrics. New Readiness score. Audio Intelligence. Faster charging. Cleaner watchOS 27 interface. Beautiful bronze finish, and ceramic is back.TIREDStill only 24 hours of battery life. Privacy concerns around Siri Recap and Live Rewind.On the surface, the Apple Watch Series 12 doesn’t appear to be a major upgrade over last year’s release and, in many ways, it isn’t. But after a week of wearing it day and night, I noticed that the Series 12 feels more intuitive, putting fewer steps between me and the information I need from my everyday smartwatch.
Health tracking is more thorough, thanks to a new Health Sensing System and faster S11 chip. The watchOS 27 update, first announced at WWDC in June and finally available to consumers, gives the Apple Watch a cleaner, streamlined interface that positions Siri AI at the center of the user experience. The most notable addition is perhaps Audio Intelligence, a suite of listening tools powered by Apple Intelligence. Plus, in a fun return, the Series 12 also comes in ceramic, a premium finish Apple discontinued in 2020.
Not everyone needs the upgrade, though. If you’re coming from the Series 8 or older, the Series 12 is a generational leap, with a better display, longer battery life, and newer health features, including sleep apnea and hypertension notifications. Owners of the Series 9 or 10 have fewer reasons to swap, but the battery improvements alone (18 hours to 24 hours) may be compelling. If you already have the Series 11, Audio Intelligence probably isn’t going to be enough to justify replacing a watch that’s already capable of most of the same functions.
Polished, Inside and Out
Visually, Apple isn’t fixing what isn’t broken, and I’m not mad about it. The Series 12 looks nearly identical to its predecessors, but Apple highlights it as its thinnest Apple Watch yet. The aluminum and titanium models measure 9.7 millimeters thick, and the ceramic option is 9.85 millimeters thick. I didn’t notice a difference during everyday wear, but the Apple Watch Series remains one of the most comfortable smartwatches I’ve tested. Aside from the new Hermès collection, there aren’t any new band designs this year, but Apple has added new colors to the existing lineup.
Photograph: Boutayna ChokraneThe new finishes are exciting, particularly the return of ceramic. Apple first offered a ceramic option with the Series 2 in 2016, and it was discontinued in 2020. Today, it’s available in pearl white and night blue, both of which give the Series 12 a softer finish that looks more like an accessory. The ceramic feels more like a fashionable move rather than a functional one, but Apple is following a trend seen across brands like Oura.
I’m testing the aluminum model in the new dark bronze finish, which has become my favorite. It complements most of my wardrobe and gives the watch a more cosmopolitan look than some of Apple’s sportier colorways. Aluminum models are also available in the standard light gold, black, and space gray; titanium comes in natural and a new radiant gold. The aluminum models are now coated with Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple says is 60 percent tougher than the previous Ion-X glass. I haven’t had enough time with the watch to meaningfully test that durability claim, but for someone who tends to knock their smartwatch on doors and countertops, it’s an improvement I’ll happily accept.
Battery life remains rated at 24 hours, which is slightly disappointing when competitors can go longer between charges. The saving grace is faster charging. Fifteen minutes of charging now provides up to 12 hours of battery life, and five minutes gets you up to 10 hours of sleep tracking. This has been the most useful upgrade for me. I can set the watch to charge while I’m getting ready for bed and put it back on for sleep tracking.
Photograph: Boutayna ChokraneThe Series 12 ships with watchOS 27, but most of the software changes will also arrive on compatible older Apple Watches. I particularly love the revamped app layout. Instead of having to hunt through a sea of icons or scroll through an exhaustive list, Apple now surfaces five Siri AI-suggested apps, the Siri app, and a shortcut to the full app grid. The apps I need most are immediately available without cluttering the display.
Apple is also making the watch easier to navigate with one hand, adding a single-tap gesture to Apple’s existing double-tap and wrist-flick controls. Tap your index finger and thumb together to select widgets in Smart Stack; double-tap lets you scroll through them. A wrist flick can return you to the watch face, silence timers, or dismiss notifications. These gestures are particularly handy (ha) when you’re multitasking or if you want to use your watch discreetly.
Better at Reading You
The new S11 chip brings the standard round of faster CPU and GPU performance, along with a more efficient Neural Engine. S11 also powers a remodeled pedometer to improve step counts and distance measurements, particularly during indoor walks and runs. Compared to Series 11, I didn’t notice much difference in numbers. I do, though, appreciate the new Steps complication, which puts my real-time step count on the watch face, so I can check my progress without opening the Activity app.
Video: Boutayna ChokraneThe bigger hardware upgrade is Apple’s new Health Sensing System. The Series 12 has 32 electrodes for improved skin contact during ECG readings, compared with two on the Series 11. The photodiodes have been rearranged in a ring configuration for improved optical sensing, and larger green LEDs have been added for more accurate heart rate readings.
The result, and one of the watch’s biggest selling points, is that it takes more frequent readings. The Series 12 measures heart rate every five seconds, even while you’re moving, whereas the Series 11 takes readings every five minutes when you’re relatively stationary. The Series 12 can also measure heart rate variability (HRV) as often as every five minutes, compared with every two hours on the Series 11, and it measures two variants: recovery HRV and overall HRV. For health-conscious people, the higher sampling frequency gives you a more continuous picture of how your body responds to stressors throughout the day instead of a handful of isolated snapshots. You can see those readings in the Heart Rate app or through the new live heart rate complications.
Video: Boutayna ChokraneReadiness has at last arrived for anyone who has been anticipating a unified recovery score from Apple. The new Readiness app pulls together activity, sleep, and other health data to estimate how prepared you are for the day ahead. It takes seven days of sleep data before the score becomes available, which is standard for wearables to determine a baseline.
I like having the score as a quick shorthand instead of attempting to contextualize the individual metrics myself, but I stay skeptical of any recovery score that simplifies complicated physiological states using a proprietary algorithm. That said, Readiness is useful as a prompt to pay attention to your body, and I’m glad Apple finally has one.
Apple is also planning a redesigned Health app later this year, including a new Longevity tab and metrics such as Health Age, which compares your health data with that of your demographic. I haven’t been able to test those features yet, but I have a feeling my Health Age will either be oddly gratifying or immediately anxiety-inducing.
A Little Too Attentive
Audio Intelligence may be Apple’s most controversial addition. The suite brings four audio-focused features, including accelerated Shazam and Sound Recognition, the latter of which has been available on the iPhone since 2020. The more intriguing additions are Siri Recap and Live Rewind, which push the Apple Watch into murky waters by using its microphone to capture and process audio. I haven’t been able to test either feature yet; both are slated to arrive later this year.
Siri Recap is Apple’s answer to the AI notetaking boom. When enabled, it can transcribe conversations and generate summaries using Apple Intelligence. I can see the appeal for meetings and classes. During a briefing, I saw Siri Recap turn a PTA meeting into a detailed set of notes and reminders that seemed genuinely useful.
Live Rewind is harder to wrap my head around. The feature maintains a rolling buffer of recent audio so you can ask the watch for a transcript of the last 15 seconds of a conversation. Double-press the Digital Crown and, in theory, you can recover something you just missed without asking the other person to repeat themselves.
The privacy concerns are justified, and you can read more about them here. Apple says the audio is processed in a protected memory area called the Secure Enclave. The S11 chip has an isolated buffer for sensor data, and Apple says raw audio isn’t accessible to the operating system, apps, the user, or Apple. The company also says these features don’t create or store audio recordings.
That’s somewhat reassuring, but it doesn’t eliminate the always-listening worries. Live Rewind supposedly plays an audible chime when activated to alert people nearby. Whether a beep is sufficient consent is a personal judgment call. I will test these features myself once they roll out and will report back.
Apple has refined the everyday experience, added health metrics people actually want, and resisted the temptation to bury the watch under a pile of new features. It’s a thoughtful update, and that makes the Series 12 the best Apple Watch yet.
SpecsCase42 mm or 46 mm (aluminum, titanium, or ceramic)DisplayWide-angle OLED Retina display, up to 2,000 nitsProcessorS11 chip with 64-bit dual-core processorFeatures Exclusive to Series 12Health Sensing System, Recovery HRV and high-frequency background heart rate tracking, Readiness app, Audio Intelligence, Precision L1 GPS$399 at Apple$390 at Amazon$399 at Best Buy
