Apple today unveiled Apple Watch Series 11, offering the most comprehensive set of health features yet, longer battery life, an even more durable cover glass, and 5G cellular capabilities, all in its thinnest and most comfortable design.
Apple Watch Series 11 is the ultimate health and fitness companion, empowering users with notifications for signs of chronic high blood pressure — also known as hypertension — plus new insights into sleep quality with sleep score, adding to the robust suite of health features included in the device.
Featuring up to 24 hours of battery life and Ion-X glass that’s 2x more scratch-resistant, Apple Watch is more convenient than ever to wear throughout the day and night.
watchOS 26 delivers more personalised ways to stay active, healthy, and connected with Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence, the wrist flick gesture, new watch faces, and more.
“Apple Watch is the world’s most popular watch, using advanced sensing capabilities to empower millions of people around the world to better understand their health simply by wearing it, while also serving as a fitness coach, message centre, mobile wallet, and beautiful timepiece,” said Stan Ng, Apple’s vice president of Apple Watch and Health Product Marketing.
“With powerful new health features — hypertension notifications and sleep score — plus longer battery life, a more scratch-resistant glass display, and 5G cellular, all in a thin and comfortable design users love, Apple Watch Series 11 is an indispensable companion that supports users’ health, fitness, safety, and connectivity throughout the day and night.”
Longer Battery Life, More Durable Ion-X Glass, and 5G Cellular
Apple Watch Series 11 now offers up to 24 hours of battery life with its thin and comfortable design, so it’s more convenient than ever to wear Apple Watch to sleep after a full day of use.
Apple Watch Series 11 also supports fast charging, with just 15 minutes providing up to eight hours of battery life.
The thin, elegant design of Apple Watch is also incredibly durable, made to accompany users throughout the day, whether they are at the gym, running, or swimming.
The cover glass of aluminium models of Apple Watch Series 11 offers 2x more scratch resistance.
Made from a unique Ion-X (ion-exchanged strengthened) glass — a custom, proprietary glass that is already the toughest in the industry — the display is now treated with a breakthrough Apple-designed ceramic coating that bonds to the glass at an atomic level through a physical vapour deposition process, significantly hardening the surface.
The titanium models will continue to have a sapphire front crystal, the most scratch-resistant and crack-resistant material covering a display.
With a cellular plan, Apple Watch users can take calls, send messages, and even get help from emergency services when their iPhone isn’t with them.
Apple Watch now offers 5G cellular capabilities, which provide better performance with greater throughput, so music, podcasts, and apps download faster.
To boost reception in areas with weak coverage, Apple Watch Series 11 also features a redesigned cellular antenna to cover more bands, and simultaneously engages the two system antennas when needed, significantly increasing the signal strength.
Hypertension Notifications
Building on its suite of advanced health features, Apple Watch Series 11 introduces hypertension notifications, which can alert users if signs of chronic high blood pressure — or hypertension — are detected.
Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease, and impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults globally. It is frequently undiagnosed because it often has no symptoms, many people do not see a doctor regularly, and even during a clinical visit, it can be easily missed with a single measurement.
Hypertension notifications on Apple Watch use data from the optical heart sensor to analyse how a user’s blood vessels respond to the beats of the heart. The algorithm works passively in the background reviewing data over 30-day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension.
These notifications provide users with valuable insights into their health as it relates to this widespread condition simply by wearing their Apple Watch, so they can begin making potentially lifesaving behavioural changes, or start treatment to reduce their risk of serious, long-term health events.
Hypertension notifications are grounded in rigorous scientific validation. The feature was developed with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies totalling over 100,000 participants. Its performance was then validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants.
While hypertension notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension, with the reach of Apple Watch, the feature is expected to notify over 1 million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
“Hypertension is the leading preventable cause of heart attack and stroke, yet millions remain undiagnosed,” said Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM, cardiologist and scientist at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital.
“Making accurate detection easy and part of daily life can help people get care earlier and prevent avoidable harm.”
If users receive a hypertension notification, it is recommended that they log their blood pressure for seven days using a third-party blood pressure cuff and share the results with their provider at their next visit, which is consistent with the latest American Heart Association guidelines for the diagnosis and management of hypertension.
Clearance for hypertension notifications from the FDA and other regulators is expected soon, and the feature will be available in more than 150 countries and regions — including the U.S. and the EU — this month.
Hypertension notifications will be available on Apple Watch Series 9 and later, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later, with watchOS 26.
Sleep Score
Sleep is fundamental to a person’s health and critical to daily restoration. Apple Watch allows users to track sleep, and its powerful sensors capture data during sleep like heart rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and respiratory rate, and even discover possible sleep apnea.
Now, with watchOS 26, Apple Watch can help users understand the quality of their sleep and how to make it more restorative with a new sleep score feature.
Sleep quality is influenced by several factors, such as duration, bedtime consistency, how often a person wakes up, and how much time is spent in each sleep stage. With sleep score, Apple Watch helps track each of these categories to assign transparent and easy-to-understand metrics for a user’s overall sleep quality.
After each night, sleep score provides an overall score and classification in the Sleep app on Apple Watch, plus a clear breakdown of the most critical components, so users know what to prioritise to improve their sleep.
Users can also choose to easily access their sleep score in a watch face complication or in the Smart Stack, and they can track their sleep scores over time in the Health app on iPhone.
The scoring approach and prioritisation algorithm of sleep score is informed by the latest guidance published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, National Sleep Foundation, and World Sleep Society. Over 5 million nights of sleep data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study were used to develop and test the scoring algorithms.
Hypertension notifications and sleep score join a powerful set of health features available on Apple Watch, including irregular rhythm notifications, high and low heart rate notifications, the ECG app, Blood Oxygen, sleep apnea notifications, and retrospective ovulation estimates.
Updates to the Workout Experience
With watchOS 26, Apple Watch Series 11 features Workout Buddy, a first-of-its-kind fitness experience powered by Apple Intelligence that analyses a user’s workout data and fitness history to deliver personalised, spoken motivation throughout their session, based on data like heart rate, pace, distance, Activity rings, personal fitness milestones, and more.
Workout Buddy will be available starting in English across some of the most popular workout types, and is available on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, with an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone nearby.
Additionally, the new layout of the Workout app makes it easier to customise workouts with Workout Views, custom workouts, Pacer, Race Route, and more.
Apple Watch users can now conveniently view and create workouts in the Fitness app on iPhone, including custom workouts, and then easily access them in the Workout app on Apple Watch.
To add inspiration, users can set up music and podcasts right in the Workout app to automatically play when they start a workout.
watchOS 26
In addition to hypertension notifications, sleep score, and Workout Buddy, with watchOS 26, Apple Watch Series 11 offers a fresh look, additional intelligence, and more personalised ways to stay active, healthy, and connected, including:
- A gorgeous new software design with Liquid Glass, enabling a vibrant and expressive experience across the Photos watch face, Smart Stack widgets, Smart Stack hints, notifications, Control Centre, and in-app controls and navigation.
- A redesigned watch face gallery with two new watch faces: Flow, which uses Liquid Glass numerals that beautifully refract swirls of colour that also respond to the movement of a user’s wrist, and Exactograph, a modern reinterpretation of a traditional regulator clock that separates the hours, minutes, and seconds for precise timekeeping. In addition, over 20 watch faces are updated so users can see a ticking seconds hand without raising their wrist.
- A new one-handed wrist flick gesture to easily dismiss notifications, stop a timer, or silence an alarm, joining the double tap gesture to allow users to do even more on Apple Watch when their other hand is occupied.
- Smart Stack hints, proactive prompts that provide actionable, immediately useful suggestions based on contextual data, sensor data, and data from a user’s routine.
- Live Translation in Messages with Apple Intelligence, allowing incoming texts to be automatically translated into a user’s preferred language, right on their wrist, when Apple Watch is paired with an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone. Additionally, for users whose device language is set to English, Apple Watch will intelligently suggest relevant actions using the context of a conversation in the Messages app, like starting a Check In when a friend asks a user to share when they arrive home, or using Apple Cash when a user is asked to contribute to a group gift.
- The Notes app, which allows users to create or access notes right on their wrist.
- Hold Assist and Call Screening, which come to the Phone app when iPhone is nearby. When a user is waiting for a live agent, Hold Assist recognises once a live agent is available and notifies the user to return to the call. Call Screening helps users manage incoming phone calls from unknown numbers more efficiently by collecting a name and reason for the call before their phone rings, so they can make an informed decision on whether to pick up, decline the call, or ask for more information.
Apple Watch Series 11 Pricing and Availability
Apple Watch Series 11 is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes in jet black, rose gold, silver, and new space gray aluminium cases. Apple Watch Series 11 is also available in polished titanium in natural, gold, and slate.
Apple Watch Hermès is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes in silver titanium.
Apple Watch Series 11 starts at £399.
Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the UK, the U.S., and more than 50 other countries and regions can pre-order Apple Watch Series 11 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 19.
New subscribers may get three months of Apple Fitness+ and Apple Music with the purchase of Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, or Apple Watch Ultra 3.
Clearance for hypertension notifications from the FDA and other regulators is expected soon, with availability in over 150 countries and regions — including the U.S. and the EU — this month.
