Apple announced three new smartwatches at its “Awe Dropping” event today. Along with new iPhone 17 models, we now have the Apple Watch Series 11, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and (finally) a new Apple Watch SE — much as the rumors predicted. The Apple Watch Series 11 is available for pre-order today with a starting price of $399 and will ship out September 19.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low, Sam Rutherford and Billy Steele are on the ground at the event, so we’ll have hands-on coverage soon, followed by full reviews in a week or so. In the meantime, here’s everything we know about the newest flagship series Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch Series 11 can deliver hypertension alerts
The keynote speech started off with dramatic testimonials of how the Apple Watch has helped people with their health and well being, alerting them to health issues and calling for help that saved their lives. The new model will now help identify another health woe: hypertension.
Apple’s VP of health, Dr. Sumbul Ahmad Desai, introduced a feature that can help detect hypertension (high blood pressure), a condition which affects over a billion people worldwide and often has no obvious symptoms. The feature relies on the same optical heart sensor the Apple Watch has had for years, but now a new algorithm informed by both machine learning and a study involving more than 100,000 participants looks for high blood pressure. It works in the background over the course of a month to identify patterns associated with hypertension.
Desai made sure to state that it can’t detect all cases of hypertension, but that Apple expects to notify more than one million people that they may have undiagnosed hypertension in the first year of the feature’s availability — though, that’s dependent on FDA clearance. (Apple expects to gain that soon.)
A screen that’s twice as scratch resistant
As for what else is new this year, we heard from Stan Ng, VP of Apple Watch and health product marketing, who called the Series 11 the thinnest and most comfortable ever. The Ion-X glass now has a ceramic coating bonded at an atomic level making it two times more scratch-resistant than before.
There’s a new color (Space Grey to go along with the Rose Gold, Jet Black and Silver from prior models) and the case is now made from 100 percent recycled aluminum, up from 95 percent on the Series 10. There’s also a slate of colors in polished, 100 percent recycled titanium. Battery life is now up to 24 hours, thanks to a battery redesign, meaning you can wear it all day and night.
The Apple Watch will now award you a sleep score
If you wear your watch all night, you’ll be rewarded with a new sleep score (much like you already get from a Galaxy watch or a Pixel Watch/Fitbit). The sleep score analyzes the quality of your sleep based on duration, consistency, time awake and other metrics. You’ll also get details on what affected your score and what you can do to get better sleep next time. The Apple Heart and Movement study provided sleep data to help inform how the sleep score works.
Cellular models now get 5G connectivity
If you opt for the cellular model, you’ll get access to 5G networks, instead of just LTE. That’ll allow for speedier data connections on your wrist even if you leave your phone at home. The modem and antenna architecture should provide wider coverage as well, while being more power efficient. 5G cellular connection will be available from most carriers at launch.
The wearable will ship with watchOS 26, which showcases the new Liquid Glass design — and the Apple Watch is getting a new watch face to showcase a translucent look called Flow. There’s also a new Exactograph watch face, which Ng described as a “modern reinterpretation of a traditional regulator clock.”
What’s stayed the same on the Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch announcements usually lavish much praise on the new processor chip (“system in a package” or SiP). There was no mention on that front for the Series 11 — because it’s using the same S10 chip as last year. We found the performance was plenty capable last time around, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Last year, Apple gave its flagship wearable the biggest hardware update since the Series 4, so it’s not surprising the new model retains that general design. Like the Series 10, the Apple Watch Series 11 comes in a 42mm or 46mm case size. Strangely, the company is touting it as the thinnest ever — though the tech specs list it at the same 9.7mm as the Series 10. We did indeed find the Series 10 to be comfortably thin, so again, not a complaint.
The best thing that hasn’t changed is the price. Last year, the Series 10 started at $399 — exactly how much the base model Series 11 costs. There was plenty of speculation as to whether tariffs would up the prices of the new Apple hardware, but at least for the company’s flagship wearable, any increased costs didn’t get passed on to the customer.
Apple Watch Series 11 pricing and availability
The Apple Watch Series 11 starts at $399 for the 42mm aluminum case and GPS-only connectivity. The larger 46mm case starts at $429. Adding 5G cellular connectivity tacks on $100 to both models. The titanium case bumps the starting price to $699, but cellular is included. Of course, there are also a slew of new bands you can pick that’ll add more dollars to your Apple Watch purchase — and the Hermès variant goes for as much as $1,950 (but comes with a custom watch face).
All Apple Watches are available for pre-order today and will be available September 19.
