Apple launches Apple Watch Series 12
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
Apple has unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12, headlined by new Siri-powered "Audio Intelligence" features rather than a major hardware redesign. The standout additions are Live Rewind, which lets wearers replay and read a transcript of the previous 15 seconds of nearby speech by double-pressing the Digital Crown, and Siri Recap, which uses ambient listening to generate automatic summaries and key points of conversations in a new Siri app. The watch also introduces Sound Recognition to alert deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sirens, alarms, doorbells or a crying baby without an iPhone nearby, and built-in Shazam song identification via the Smart Stack. Live Rewind and Siri Recap arrive in beta later this year, in English initially, on both the Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4.
The Series 12 runs on a new S11 chip, comes in space grey, black, light gold and dark bronze aluminium, radiant gold and natural titanium, and night blue and pearl white ceramic finishes, and starts at $399 (aluminium), rising to $699 (titanium) and $899 (ceramic). Preorders are open now ahead of an 18 September release, with leasing available from $11.99 a month. Health upgrades include continuous background heart-rate sensing every five seconds (60 times more frequent than before), perimenopause and menopause support in Cycle Tracking, a redesigned Health app with new Insights and Longevity tabs including a "Health Age" metric, and AI-powered physical assessments of flexibility, strength and balance via the iPhone camera. Apple says outdoor workout battery life has risen 25 percent to 10 hours, with faster charging adding up to 12 hours in 15 minutes.
- New Audio Intelligence features: Live Rewind and Siri Recap for conversations
- Sound Recognition aids deaf/hard-of-hearing users; Shazam built in
- Starts $399, preorders open now, ships 18 September
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Apple has held its September launch event, unveiling the Apple Watch Series 12 alongside a new Watch Ultra 4. Rather than a big redesign, the update centres on new Siri-driven features that use the watch's microphone to listen to nearby speech, transcribe it and summarise conversations, alongside sensors that alert users to sounds like sirens or alarms.
Apple is the world's largest technology company by market value, and its smartwatch line is a major part of its wearables business alongside the iPhone and iPad. The launch is notable partly because it is among the first big product releases since John Ternus took over as Apple's chief executive.
The new features raise questions of interest beyond gadget specifications, since always-listening tools that record and summarise conversations touch on privacy, while accessibility additions such as sound alerts for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, and expanded health tracking for perimenopause and menopause, extend the watch's use beyond fitness tracking.
Full account
Apple used its September event to unveil the Apple Watch Series 12, alongside the Apple Watch Ultra 4, positioning the update around a new S11 chip, a reworked health-sensor array and a suite of Siri-driven audio features built on Apple Intelligence. The Series 12 starts at $399 for an aluminium case, rising to $699 for titanium and $899 for a returning ceramic option, with pre-orders opening on the day of the announcement and devices reaching customers on 18 September. Both new watches ship with the watchOS 27 software update first previewed at Apple's developer conference in June, which is also being rolled out to older, compatible models.
A central theme across the coverage is a new set of 'Audio Intelligence' features powered by Siri. Live Rewind lets a wearer double-press the Digital Crown to replay, and read a text transcript of, the previous 15 seconds of nearby conversation, while Siri Recap uses ambient listening to generate titled summaries of exchanges for later review in a new Siri app. A Sound Recognition tool is aimed particularly at deaf and hard-of-hearing users, alerting them on the wrist to sirens, alarms, doorbells or a crying baby even without an iPhone nearby, and an updated Shazam integration surfaces identified songs directly in the watch's Smart Stack. Apple says Live Rewind and Siri Recap will arrive as English-language betas later in the year on both the Series 12 and Ultra 4.
Health tracking has also been substantially reworked. A redesigned optical and electrical sensor array — described by Apple representatives as moving from a two-petal to a 32-petal electrode layout, with photodiodes arranged more tightly to reduce light leakage — enables continuous background heart-rate readings roughly every five seconds, a marked increase in frequency from previous models. This hardware underpins a new Readiness score, said to be exclusive to the Series 12 and Ultra 4 because of their upgraded sensors, alongside a Health Age metric that compares a user's vitals with their chronological age. Both features sit within a restructured Health app featuring new Insights and Longevity tabs, and Cycle Tracking has been extended to cover perimenopause and menopause.
On design, the standout change is the reintroduction of a ceramic case option, in pearl white and night blue finishes, which several outlets treat as the headline hardware story rather than a footnote. Aluminium colours include space grey, black, light gold and a new dark bronze, while titanium comes in natural and radiant gold; Apple's stated battery life is around 24 hours of everyday use, extending to roughly 10 hours during outdoor workouts, with fast charging said to restore up to 12 hours of use in 15 minutes. The separately launched Ultra 4 carries the same S11 chip and audio features, starts at $799 in natural or black titanium with an Hermès variant, and offers up to 50 hours of battery life.
Where outlets differ
Sources disagree slightly on ceramic's history: one says Apple first offered ceramic with the Series 2 in 2016 and discontinued it in 2020, while another says ceramic ran through the Series 2, 3 and 5, making the Series 12 the first ceramic Apple Watch since the 2019 Series 5 — the two accounts don't fully align on when ceramic last appeared.
One outlet (covering pricing history) is the only source to note a $949 price for the 46mm ceramic model, and frames the ceramic option explicitly as a successor to the old 'Apple Watch Edition' luxury tier.
One outlet leads with accessibility, framing Sound Recognition primarily as a feature for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, whereas others mention it only briefly as part of the wider Audio Intelligence suite.
Another source focuses more heavily on watchOS 27's broader interface changes — the 'Liquid Glass' redesign, new one-handed tap/double-tap gestures for Smart Stack, a wrist-flick gesture, a proactive battery-saving mode, and an expanded Workout Buddy — details largely absent from the other reports.
A hands-on report offers first-person impressions (e.g. the dark bronze finish appearing darker in person than expected) and specific battery/charging figures (24-hour everyday life, 10-hour workout life, 15-minute fast charge) not detailed elsewhere.
Only one source explicitly states that the Readiness score is limited to the Series 12 and Ultra 4 because it depends on the new sensor hardware.
More coverage
- TechCrunch — Apple unveils Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 with an AI upgrade that can recap your day
- Wired — Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4: Ceramic, Specs, Release Date
- The Verge — Apple brought ceramic back for the Series 12
- The Verge — Hands on with the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4